It’s official – almost

In Australia, it’ll be interesting to see whether the ‘movie server on a plane’ wireless streaming options on some Qantas and Virgin Australia aircraft will make the hurdles as easy to clear.

Yet after pressure from flyers, airlines and politicians, US experts have concluded what must be one of the longest informal tests in aviation: airliners are not subject to material interference from passengers’ electronic devices.

In the iPhone age, it’s inconceivable that any serious risk comes from the minuscule emissions of Kindles, iPads and similar devices even in full cellular transmitting mode. In flight or airplane mode – which is still required under the new regulations – it’s even less likely.

Modern airliners have been subject to requirements on interference tolerance for many years now. Personal electronics are also subject to regulatory and emissions scrutiny. And the overwhelming evidence comes from the lack of jets plummetting groundwards because the bloke by the window left his laptop in sleep rather than shutdown, or because the kid in row 27 is surreptitiously playing on her iPad.

Since you read Australian Aviation last month, some five million passengers flew on commercial flights within Australia according to BITRE statistics. How many of those passengers do you think had one or more devices not officially set to flight mode – whether by ignorance (is it ‘off’ or ‘off-off’?), forgetfulness or disdain? And of those five million passengers, how much productivity could be gained if they each had, at the bare minimum of ‘devices off’ time, 30 minutes more time to get things done? Assuming even one in 10 flyers could productively use that time to respond offline to emails, review documents or create slides, that works out to a very conservative 250,000 work hours lost every month to what has clearly become an outdated and ineffective set of rules. In the US, research by Chicago’s DePaul University forecast over 105 million hours of lost time in 2013 by US travellers.

Multiply that by the hourly rate of a professional and soon you’re talking real money. But, of course, in aviation a cautious approach is sensible. That’s why the US rules mandate that only smaller devices under around 900g, like phones, e-books and tablets, may be used. (Not that smaller laptops are any heavier than an older iPad with a keyboard case, but still, the line has to be drawn somewhere. ) The US rules also insist that airplane mode must be selected, which immediately cuts down on the amount of emissions from devices.

Flyers must still pay attention to the safety demonstration too.

And devices must be turned off for descent on the one-in-a-hundred flight with certain types of low-visibility landings.

All very conservative, sensible expansions to the rules from across the Pacific.

Rules, which in Australia, are left up to the airlines as part of their obligations to ensure safety: unlike UK and European agencies, the Australian regulator CASA does not set the boundaries.

In many ways, it might be easier if CASA had a stronger role to play and it’s a strange ‘who watches the watchmen?’ ask to insist that the regulated do the job of the regulator.

Nevertheless, Australian carriers must not lag behind their US counterparts in allowing electronic devices to be used during as much of the flight as possible. But they must also coordinate their efforts, no mean feat given there’s no love lost between the big players.

At a bare minimum, the Qantas and Virgin Australia groups (including regional and low-cost airlines) need to work in concert.

It’ll be a nightmare for flight attendants and passengers alike if the rules are different, not least because flyers have a tendency to observe the least permissive set. (“Oh, on my last flight I was able to turn on my phone as soon as we touched down…”) For everyone’s sanity, one set of rules needs to be created for the vast majority of flights despite the breadth of Australian commercial aviation meaning that regional, non-scheduled and FIFO operators may end up not finding as much benefit as larger airlines.

But, for the majority of those five million air passengers every month, the extra time to get things done will be welcome.