Virgin Atlantic Allows In-Flight Calls

Virgin Atlantic announced it will become the first British airline to provide passengers with a service to make and receive phone calls in the air. The service is available on the Airbus A330-300s, the airline's new aircraft. It's aimed at business travellers, however is available throughout the aircraft in all cabins.

"The airline cabin is the last refuge for those who wish to be out of earshot of someone yelling into a mobile phone, so I imagine that many passengers are not going to welcome this," said George Hobica, president of Airfarewatchdog.com. "I can just imagine sitting straightway to someone gabbing about nothing at the top of his or her lungs for hours on end. I predict a number of mobile phones will be snatched out of hands and stomped on. Just what we need, with all the other in-flight hostilities that passengers deal with."

While Virgin Atlantic may to all intents and purposes be the first airline to offer this service, passengers have already demonstrated that it is possible to make in-flight calls from their cell phones without special research. Last week, the CEO of a company that developed an app that uses VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) was escorted off a Delta flight for making a call in-flight.

The truth attempt a call

And during most passengers haven't gone so far as to to tell the truth attempt a call, many are guilty of leaving their phone on while flight, whether on purpose or not. In a recent Airfarewatchdog poll, 24 percent of respondents said they didn't always comply afterwards the cabin door has been closed and a flight attendant has asked for electronic devices to be turned off.