Next year, packs of airlines will introduce technology that will enable passengers to simultaneously send and receive e-mails on their BlackBerries, surf the web and chat on their mobile phones.
For Pankesh Patel, director of Quartermasters, a manufacturing firm, this is “a nightmare.” Patel, who flies long-haul between London and the Far East about twice per month, thinks of his flight time as a break from work.
“Unless it’s really important I don’t do any work on board. I do things I don’t have a chance to do on the ground, like read a magazine and watch a movie. I find the idea of using a mobile phone on a plane as objectionable as smoking.”
Likewise, Richard Feigen, managing director of Seymour Pierce, thinks of his flight as a “mini-holiday in the middle of a business trip.” This sentiment is no surprise to the airlines, whose own research tells them there will be a resistance to the new gadgetry.
The airlines are also aware that the new technology might send travellers a mixed signal. Carriers have spent millions selling business class as a restful sanctuary, and now they are earmarking an equivalent amount (if not more) on a swarm of tools whose sole function is to keep passengers active.
“Business travellers want space and comfort so they can relax. They don’t want an intense period of laptop application,” says Dan Brewin, Eos’s vice president of Europe.
Paul Sands, senior product manager for Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class, says customers want to sleep, watch a movie and, on certain routes (e.g. Japan) socialise. “There has not been an overwhelming message that tells us passengers want to use high-speed internet access or mobile phones.”
Emirates, one of the key players in the race to establish the Middle East as a hub for business traffic between Europe and Asia, is also not convinced business customers want more technology onboard. “I find the most staid looking businessmen listening to the Rolling Stones and watching movies. If they do work it’s for a brief period at the beginning or end of a flight,” says Patrick Brannelly, vice president passenger communications.
Brannelly says less than 10 per cent of passengers work onboard, and that figure actually dropped from five years ago. Meanwhile, passengers’ use of in-flight e-mail and SMS text messaging service and seat-back phones is steadily rising, although Brannelly believes it’s more for personal, than professional purposes.
A recent American Express survey of 500 European business travellers strongly supports the “me time” factor, with 75 per cent of respondents saying they ensure personal time when travelling for business.
Virgin and Emirates are among the few carriers still on the fence of the communications gateway, but admit it won’t be long before competitive pressure forces them to add the new technology. “We will need to invest eventually in order to give travellers the choice,” says Brannelly. Emirates is more likely to add GPRS services which enable BlackBerry and mobile phones to work before it kits out its entire fleet with full-blown, wi-fi.
Carriers that already offer high-speed internet access say the pick-up has been steady but there is little evidence to suggest usage will suddenly soar. If anything usage could drop as the novelty of stratospheric web surfing wears off.
