Cell Phones on Airlines: Coming Soon to a Seat Near You?

July 12, 2010— -- You're late for your flight. Traffic is terrible. You fight your way through security. By the time you sit down on the plane, all you want to do is wrap yourself in peace and quiet.

And then you hear it: the guy in the seat next to you, yakking away on a cell phone. This is how you're going to fly across the Pacific?

In one extreme case, records show that last October, a talkative passenger on Emirates Airlines yammered on for 65 minutes during a flight from Dubai to Accra, Ghana.

The data, released by Aeromobile, the U.K. company that provides mobile connectivity for Emirates, also showed that one frequent flyer was also a frequent caller, making a series of phone calls totalling 2.5 hours on each of the seven flights the person took on Emirates.

More and more international airlines offer in-flight cell services, and it might not be long before calls are routine on domestic U.S. flights as well.

Cathay Pacific has now announced that, starting in 2012, it will equip its entire fleet with an onboard cell phone system for GSM mobile phones. Virgin Atlantic announced a similar plan last month for its newest planes.

Here in the U.S. the Federal Communications Commission prevents domestic carriers from following their international peers, and legislation is pending in Congress to ban in-flight cell-phone conversations. But some in the industry say it's only a matter of time before American airlines start bringing voice communication to the friendly skies.

"[Cathay's announcement] is definitely paving the road for American air carriers to have cell phones on carriers," said Kate Hanni, executive director for Flyers Rights, a non-profit airline consumer organization that supports the use of cell phones in flight.

In 2008, Emirates Airlines became the first to let passengers make cell phone calls on select flights. Ryanair, Malaysia Airlines, British Airways and V Australia have all either done the same or considered it.

Hanni says it's not a bad thing -- that it's very different from mobile phone use on the ground.

Callum Grieve, 43, who commutes by train from Larchmont, N.Y., to New York City, said that "without exception" he hears cell phone chatter on his evening ride home.

"It's intrusive," he said. "You're tired and you want to settle in and … read a book and it's disrespectful."

Could he picture the same thing on a 12-hour flight, in close quarters?

"At least on the train, worst-case scenario, you can get up and move to another compartment. On a plane, I don't see that as a possibility," he said.