air travel

What? Wireless air travel? Yeah, It's coming soon

In early 2007, OnAir will arrive. OnAir is a service that uses satellite technology to enable air travel passengers to use wireless devices such as mobile phones, Internet connections from computers and Blackberries during a flight. The debate over the use of wireless technology during flight has been going on for years, and now that it’s about to happen, the debate is likely to heat up.

First of all, you should know that the first wave of this will not be happening on US flights. Airbus, the plane manufacturer who is creating this technology, is selling it to AirFrance. AirFrance is expected to have the service available to passengers in early 2007. Whether passengers will have to pay for the service like they pay for headphones for a movie is not known yet. Two other airlines, the British airline bmi and TAP Air Portugal are both considering using OnAir, but nothing has been finalized, yet.

So what is the debate all about? Who wouldn’t want the convenience of using their cell phone during a long flight, getting important e-mails on their Blackberry or having the luxury of surfing the Internet to pass the time? Apparently, lots of people and for some very valid reasons