For those of you that hate fellow train travellers using their mobile phones to inform their loved ones the precise time the 6.50 from Waterloo is going to reach Guildford, the next item will not thrill you. By mid-1996 In-Flight Phone Corp’s FlightLink II system, which offers telephone, facsimile machine, pager, interactive video games and on-line shopping among other things, will appear in more than 1,000 commercial aircraft in USAir, Continental, America West and Carnival’s fleets. FlightLink II is already available in 50 planes. For those hoping the system might be a discrete kiosk located next to the plane’s lavatories, think again. FlightLink brings the information highway to the airline seat. Whether travelling for business or pleasure, FlightLink has something for everyone, says Neal Meehan, chief marketing officer of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois-based In-Flight Phone, now controlled by MCI Communications Corp. The system features a screen in the seat-back and a telephone handset with a full-sized computer keyboard tucked under the armrest. As with existing phones in planes, users swipe a credit card in a slot on the receiver and dial to pay for connect time. In-Flight says its service uses a technology that gives a more clear digital connection than existing in-flight telephones and this is needed to carry data, as well as voice. In the paging system, messages appear on the screen and passengers can return calls at the touch of a button. They can also type a message on the screen and send it to any facsimile machine. Passengers can also make airline, limousine or rental car reservations; send flowers, greetings cards, biscuits or booze, or they can shop on the SkyMall catalogue ’til they drop and the merchandise will be there at their destination. If the passenger has a laptop computer this can be plugged into the system; business travellers can download a spreadsheet from the office computer, journalists can file stories from the air and users of on-line services such as Internet can access their accounts to send and receive electronic mail. And while the system may seem an indulgence for the rich or a necessary evil for travelling professionals, In-Flight believes that in-flight communication services will be a $1,000m industry by the year 2000, in terms of revenue from phone calls, and value-added services. At the moment, the company is installing the FlightLink system at the rate of one aircraft a day, and is actively marketing the product in Europe where the company has already signed contracts with Air UK and CrossAir in Britain. But this is not a cheap service. Calls cost $9 to $11 a minute where a special satellite link is required in some areas over the ocean, but only $2 when the aircraft is over land. Which may makes travelling economy class across the Atlantic seem not quite such a miserable prospect.
