A poll of British travellers has revealed a huge appetite for inflight mobile services. Over 70 per cent of Brits surveyed said they would use their mobile phones during a flight, if they had the option.
Almost half of people would use inflight mobile services to send text messages, while 44 per cent would like to access apps including Facebook and Twitter. According to a survey, conducted by One Poll on behalf of AeroMobile, a third of travellers would use it to surf the internet and a quarter would use it to distract themselves with online games on their mobile devices.
Just 19 per cent of people would use the service to make a call at 30,000ft.
The survey of 2,000 UK consumers reflects Britain’s increasingly connected society. The majority of people questioned said they expect inflight mobile connectivity to become standard in the next few years.
“These findings certainly echo our experiences at AeroMobile,” said Kevin Rogers, Head of Revenue Development at AeroMobile. “We know there is demand from consumers; traffic on our network in January outstripped the total traffic for the last six months of 2012, and we expect it to keep growing.”
“Last year 5.5 million devices connected to the AeroMobile network, and this year we’re doubling the number of airlines we’re working with to offer even more passengers the option of using their mobile phones inflight,” continues Rogers.
AeroMobile provides a mobile network for passengers to roam on inflight, a service which has become increasing popular with the advent of the smartphone.
The poll revealed the generation gap associated with adopting new technology; over 80 per cent of under 35s said they would use their phones inflight, but just over half of over 55s would.
Contrary to popular belief, men are more likely than women to pick up the phone for a chat inflight, while women are more likely than men to play games and check social media apps.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
