Rose Cantine

Airlines have been threatening for some time now to enhance your inflight misery by allowing mobile phone calls in the air. Now it seems that one airline, Ryanair, is serious about this. Glenn Fleishman reports that Ryanair, a European budget airline, will equip 50 planes with mobile phone capability by the end of 2007.

So let’s see, in addition to screaming children, drunken English tourists going for bachelor party weekends to Amsterdam, rabid football fans and just LOUD people, now we get the business types yakking away on their mobile phones. I am amazed how much noise we tolerate, from blaring announcements in airports to adverts on TV and on the Internet. It seems people are afraid of silence. I know many who need to leave the TV on while doing chores at home.

Flying has never been a truly delightful experience, but it’s now getting to the point of being unbearable. From the dreadful security procedures in airports to the inedible airline food (a good time to go on a fast), video conferencing never looked better.

I am hoping other airlines do not follow Ryanair, which is now on my official list of airlines to AVOID.

Update: according to Glenn Fleishman who recently wrote an article for the Economist on this subject, mobile phone calling will become more and more accepted on airlines.