Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic will have the facility for passengers to make calls from their mobiles inflight for the first time following the installation of Starlink’s super-fast wi-fi fleetwide.
BA has already installed Starlink on at least one aircraft and it is rolling the high-speed wi-fi out to the rest of its fleet, with the aim of having all of them connected within two years.
It has told passengers: “If you need to make a call during the flight, we’d appreciate it if you could keep your voice low and use headphones.”
Virgin announced this week that is it accelerating the installation of Starlink connectivity across its entire fleet, beginning with its Airbus A350s next month.
It expects all A350s to be connected by early summer, after which it will extend Starlink across its Boeing 787 and A330neo fleet, with the aim of having the service on all aircraft by 2027.
In a statement, Virgin said passengers will be able to make ‘brief’ audio calls, in addition to streaming TV shows, gaming with friends on the ground, browsing and watching live sport.
Both airlines will offer the wi-fi free of charge to all passengers, although Virgin will require them to sign up to its frequent flyer programme.
Almost all agents contacted by Indulge’s parent Travel Gossip greeted the news with horror, though one pointed out that it will make life easier for those who need to keep on working while travelling, including agents.
Angie Davis, a Personal Travel Consultant from Bristol, secured her first-ever booking on a plane, while she was flying to New Zealand. She had to buy Singapore Airlines’ wi-fi package to be able to complete the deal, which was for a P&O cruise to the fjords.
“Doesn’t matter if it’s a booking or delayed flights, us self-employed travel consultants need to be available every second of every day,” said Angie. “That will be even easier if we can call.”
Other agents pointed out there’s a risk the facility will be abused.
“Too many people these days have no social awareness and are too self-centred to care what others think and will have a ‘trigger happy’ conversation without a care in the world,” said Simon Meredith, alluding to the noughties comedy Trigger Happy TV.
Michelle Halsey said she would avoid airlines that allow passengers to make calls. “People have no social awareness. Calls on Facetime or speaker phone in an enclosed public space drives me nuts, it would be so much worse on a plane, sat so close to someone with no option to move away… imagine that middle seat between two strangers on calls.”
The issue has raised concerns about how airlines will monitor phone use and ensure passengers don’t abuse the facility and keep their use down to ‘acceptable’ levels.
“All of us have a different idea of ‘acceptable’,” one agent pointed out. Fiona Mallinson of Personal Travel Consultants, said: “I think it will be fine if people are respectful and it can be moderated by the crew.
“Unfortunately, the general public are increasingly unaware of social etiquette and common decency and will happily have their phone on speaker while in close proximity to others.”
One agent pointed out that someone talking on the phone is no different to two people having a chat on a plane, but she said she wouldn’t be happy with passengers making calls on night flights.
Jodie Smith of Preferred Travel Fleet, said flights are, currently, ‘one of the last few places you can avoid technology’. She added that it’s ‘quite nice’ to be able to able to disconnect to the real world for a while.
“It is possible to cope for a few hours without both outgoing and incoming telephone calls,” said Neil Basnett. “We coped before people allowed mobile phones to take them over and we can still cope. A big no from me.”
