British passengers want more connectivity and mobile services while onboard their flight. That’s according to a survey conducted for AeroMobile, the leading mobile phone operator for the aviation industry, which found that 70% of UK travellers would use their mobile phones while on a plane if they had the option.
The census also revealed that the majority of people questioned expect that inflight mobile services will become a standard facility on aircraft in the next few years.
The study of 2000 UK consumers showed that almost half would use inflight mobile services to send text messages and 44% would like access to social networking apps like Facebook and Twitter while up in the air. A third of travellers said they would use their phones to surf the internet, while a quarter would distract themselves by playing games on their mobile devices. Just 19% wanted to use services to call from the air.
The poll also identified an age gap associated with adopting inflight mobile technology; over 80% of under-35s said they would use their phones inflight, but just over half of over-55s would.
“These findings certainly echo our experiences at AeroMobile,” said Kevin Rogers, Head of Revenue Development. “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,” he added.
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