WITH 40 cent texts and call fees of €2 to €3 per minute, the mid-air mobile phone service launched on some Ryanair aircraft could turn out to be a financial success – but it may not be a winning public relations move, judging from reactions this week during one of the first flights to feature the service.
“It’s an absolute nightmare – you can tell Mr O’Leary that,” said one irate Stansted-to-Dublin passenger, who tutted and rolled her eyes as a Ryanair public relations officer spoke into his phone in the row behind her.
“It only seems loud because we’re on the tarmac – and only six passengers can use their phones on the plane at once,” the Ryanair staffer explained.
The passenger wasn’t convinced: “That’s six too many . . . when I get on a plane I just want to chill out and read – how can I do that with bloody phones ringing all over the place?”
The service, a partnership with Geneva-based firm OnAir, charges international roaming rates to relay calls from a passenger’s mobile to a base station on board the aircraft.
The signal is then bounced up to a satellite, and back down to the ground.
Charges are determined by the service provider, which receives the bulk of the call fee.
At the moment, only Vodafone and O2 customers can use their phones in the air.
The service worked well enough on Thursday when a small number of journalists were invited on board a scheduled Ryanair flight to test the system.
Long chats were ruled out, as the signals are relayed to a base station inside the aircraft, which is switched on only at cruising altitude, so during a flight across the Irish Sea there was about 15 minutes of potential talk time.
This reporter had enough time to call the office, leave a message on his wife’s mobile and dial 11811 to get a number for Ryanair customer service, to see if it was possible to lodge a complaint about passengers using mobile phones.
Alas, the connection was turned off as we began our descent.
In truth, the ringing phones and mobile conversations aren’t as obtrusive as one might think.
The background drone of the engines muffles most discreet conversations from fellow passengers. Incidentally, the aircraft noise forces callers to stick a finger in their other ear so they can hear the person to whom they are talking.
However, the phone chatter is less noticeable than an overheard phone conversation on a train, for instance.
“My immediate reaction is: ‘Is it really necessary’?” said a paying passenger, Blackberry-using publisher Andrew Brown.
“You’ve checked your e-mails at the airport. I don’t spend the whole 55 minutes I’m in the air thinking, ‘Oh God, I’m out of touch’.”
Nevertheless, Mr Brown tried calling home from mid-air with a borrowed phone. There was no answer.
He wasn’t surprised that Ryanair’s O’Leary was offering the service. “He’s done everything but install coin-operated toilets – I suppose something like this was inevitable.”