For Those Who Love Eavesdropping: Emirates Airlines to Allow In-Flight Cell Phone Use

Emirates Airlines and AeroMobile have announced that Emirates flights will begin to offer in-flight mobile phone use. This venture will allow passengers not only to call their loved ones about the pot-roast in the oven back home but also the ability to drop a text to their buddy about the latest on the March Madness scores, all in the comfort of their middle, bathroom row airplane seat.

Emirates also announced that they have already placed the first officially mobile call at 30,000 feet from Casablanca to Dubai. According to Emirates, passengers will only be allowed a certain amount of calls per flight and the flight crew will be anointed the ability to shut off the system, if abuse is occurring. That would be a fun job! The airlines will also require the phones to be turned to silent or vibrate while on the plane and will not allow calls during night flights and other periods of the flight such as takeoff and landing.

It is very interesting to see that airlines are beginning to offer this service. I can image that business-types have a strong desire to be able flex their Blackberry fingers, and be connected at all times.

I think it would be cool if someone started a blog about the conversations they hear while flying, helplessly eavesdropping on someone’s cell phone conversation. I can only imagine the wild and crazy stories you’d overhear on a flight from Abidjan to Dubai.

-- by Allen Arnold