RyanAir to allow mobile phones on flights

[TonyHetherington]

(I did do a search but nothing popped up).

Yup yup yup. You read that right - as from next month Ryanair will be allowing the use of mobile phones during flights.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ryanair-an...

BMI are also looking into it, but are being a bit more tentative, whereas RyanAir seem to be jumping in with both feet. They claim they will not be charging for the service, but will simply be getting a % from OnAir, through whom the system is established.

Fortunately, I have such hate for RyanAir that I've not flown them for a fair few years now, but this would turn me off totally!

I give it 1 week before somebody doesn't know how to use their sodding profiles and...beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep

[Gylen]

Interesting...I'm against this on general principal as it will be irritating as hell. That said, it's made me 'retro-angry' (tm) at the trolley dolley who gave me a row for switching mine on too soon after landing, claiming that I could cause some catastrophic damage to occur which would obliterate us all.

I apologised and switched it off but pointed out that I thought it unlikely that it would cause disruption to flight systems as there were many more powerful transceivers on board and simply telling me to switch it off would be better than making up some cod-science reason why I was going to kill us all...

[Not Ideal]

You can now call your loved ones from the plane to tell them how late your flight is running and how poor the Ryanair service is.

[2something]

A couple of flights diverted due to on-board fighting and there won't be any 'extra' revenue ...

[S3_Graham]

tbh i think its a good thing that you CANT use your phone... imagine a night flight and the guy next to you has his phone ring... its nice to have a place where you cant be contacted 24/7

Being an aircraft engineer there isnt any real reason why you cant use a phone on a plane... its more of a "what if" thing than it will crash in 5secs if you do it.

[audidoody]

Not Ideal said:

You can now call your loved ones from the plane to tell them how late your flight is running and how poor the Ryanair service is.

I hate their backroom and 'customer service' with a passion - but their front-end arrivals and departures schedules are pretty good (abrupt cancellations excluded!)

[sprinter885]

And having recently flown with them (complaint for cancelled flight pending !!) I bet they'll apply a charge for allowing it. (payment by credit card-over the net-(how else could you pay?)is penalised at something like £10 PER PERSON ! not per booking. I bet the card processing rate they have agreed is no worse than 1% of total transaction value.

[anonymous-user]

Gylen said:

I apologised and switched it off but pointed out that I thought it unlikely that it would cause disruption to flight systems as there were many more powerful transceivers on board and simply telling me to switch it off would be better than making up some cod-science reason why I was going to kill us all...

I'm sure she was fascinated by your observations, did she listen intently, pretending she hasn't heard it a million times before?

I expect she's is simply told to make sure everyone's phone is off and those are the reasons she is given by her employer.

[sprinter885]

I SYMPATHISE !!!calming down ever so slowly

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

£10 PER PERSON FFS!

[TonyHetherington]

sprinter885 said:

And having recently flown with them (complaint for cancelled flight pending !!) I bet they'll apply a charge for allowing it. (payment by credit card-over the net-(how else could you pay?)is penalised at something like £10 PER PERSON ! not per booking. I bet the card processing rate they have agreed is no worse than 1% of total transaction value.

In that article RyanAir have said that won't be levying a charge for it (as i'm sure you're not the first person to suggest it), however the calls and texts will be at international rate, from which RyanAir get a % - so there's no direct charge from ryanair to you.

[Roop]

I work for the aforementioned provider and in trials with Air France, it's gone down pretty well with no fights so far AFAIK.

Not using mobile phones on flights is a certification issue. That said, turning on your phone on board a non-OnAir equipped aircraft does have a different effect than an OnAir equipped one...

[off_again]

One more reason to never fly RyanAir again....

[turbobloke]

El stovey said:

Gylen said:

I apologised and switched it off but pointed out that I thought it unlikely that it would cause disruption to flight systems as there were many more powerful transceivers on board and simply telling me to switch it off would be better than making up some cod-science reason why I was going to kill us all...

I'm sure she was fascinated by your observations, did she listen intently, pretending she hasn't heard it a million times before?

I expect she's is simply told to make sure everyone's phone is off and those are the reasons she is given by her employer.

They forgot to mention global warming too? Slippage.

[hugoagogo]

another reason to avoid O'Leary's st-shower of an airline

[turbobloke]

Not Ideal said:

You can now call your loved ones from the plane to tell them how late your flight is running and how poor the Ryanair service is.

Service standards fairynuff - but you get what you pay for - as for late, are they? I hear that godawful trumpet accolade heralding an on-time or early landing far too often.

[mr_spock]

A mate of mine is a Ryanair pilot, he's been trialling this for some time. Apparently it works quite well. I suspect lots of "I'M ON THE PLANE" type shouting though.

[MK4 Slowride]

Hello, hello!, YEAH I'M ON MY MOBILE, yeah hello, alriiiight maaaate. Check me out I'm on an aeroplane, WHAT! NO I'M ON AN A.E.R.O.P.L.A.N.E yeah, wikkid init over the Atlantic, what!? no...

More of this then^

[Merritt]

Its not just a certification issue nor a technical issue for the actual aircraft that causes problems... The problem actually occurs to the mobile network on the ground. A mobile phone usually connects to the strongest base station signal available. When you are on the ground - this is limited by terrain, buildings etc. When in the sky, the signals are not limited in the same way. Using a mobile on an aircraft can actually cause users on the ground to be disconnected because your very fast moving (airborne) mobile is constantly changing base stations.

The trick is to place the strongest signal aboard the aircraft so the mobile does not interfere with the ground based system. This obviously then needs to connect to the ground - so the service provider WILL charge a fortune for this service which should deter all but important calls.

Steve

[Xaero]

Its fine by me as long as they carry on with non-mobile flights too, all for the irritation and nothing to do with safety, makes me .

I don't mind them as long as its a quiet txt message (i.e. no stupid ring/message tone), but couldn't be dealing with the theme tune of eastenders every 3 minutes because some bint behind me is sending messages.