Time machines

Once the flight attendant announces that the last cabin door has been closed and it is time to switch the mobile phone to flight mode that sense of fear of being disconnected from the outside world is soon replaced by a sense of freedom.

In our always-on, always-connected world it is a rare luxury to be disconnected from emails, Skype, Facetime, Facebook and Twitter. But it is a rare blessing too. Whether it’s a 90-minute flight to Brisbane or a nine-hour flight to Beijing, once that phone is in flight mode that time ahead is mine and mine alone.

Sometimes I will use that time to work – despite the restrictions of tray tables and narrow seats flying is a great time to write feature articles, free from external distractions. Sometimes I’ll use it to relax, to watch a movie or listen to music. But just as often I’ll use that time to think. There’s nothing like watching the world go by from a window seat at 35,000ft, favourite drink in hand, and letting the mind wonder over and process the issues of the day.

Regardless of how you spend that time, and whether it’s a 45-minute Canberra-Sydney flight or a 16-hour Sydney-DFW long-haul, unless you are travelling with family or friends, that time is your own, and free from interruption.

So I’ve viewed plans by all three local major airline groups to introduce Wi-Fi with more than a little dismay.

I have already used inflight Wi-Fi a number of times, while flying internationally with the major Gulf carriers or domestically in the US. And it can be incredibly handy. I’ve answered urgent emails over eastern Europe, filed stories over the Great Australian Bight, and checked proofs high over the plains of Kansas. And yes I’ve amused myself by following the flight I’m flying on with flight tracking websites such as FlightAware and Flightradar24.

So having inflight internet brings a different kind of freedom, the freedom of choice to be connected, to stay in control of your emails, and to stay abreast of your favourite sporting team.

And yes, no-one is forced to use inflight internet. Passengers do and will have the choice to remain disconnected.

But the temptation to stay always online, and the expectation from colleagues and collaborators that we will always be available, I fear, will be just too strong to ignore.

And as the saying goes, time is money. A lot of passengers will truly value the ability to remain connected while flying, allowing them to work on proposals and deals even at the flight levels.

Indeed it will be interesting to know if airlines can model the effect of having inflight internet available – will some business people now be more inclined to fly knowing that they won’t be disconnected from the world? It’s interesting to reflect too that aviation’s key selling point is speed – the time it takes to cover large distances quickly. Now it will be about the speed of the inflight internet connection as much as the speed of the flight itself. That’s handy when elapsed flight times today are longer than they were a generation ago due to airports and airways congestion – at least that time can be productively put to use clearing emails! If the benefits to passengers of inflight internet appear mixed, they are unambiguously positive for the airlines providing the service. In the case of the Gulf airlines and the US domestics it is a revenue opportunity, where they generally charge for access to the system. While locally Virgin (at least during its three-month trial) and Qantas plan to offer inflight internet to passengers free of charge, they expect to benefit both commercially and operationally from having a connected aircraft, talking up opportunities such as virtual duty free to better maintenance planning and enhanced situational awareness of weather.

On the flipside, airline social media teams will have to be even more responsive to real time Tweeting and Instagramming of inflight events and incidents as everyone on their flights now becomes a potential citizen aviation journalist. Imagine if the passengers of QF32 were Tweeting in realtime. And how much more of the fate of MH370 would we know had the aircraft been equipped with inflight internet? Generally I suspect that for most passengers inflight internet will be a resounding success – who doesn’t relish the prospect of binge-watching on Netflix that Nordic noir crime drama you’ve never quite managed to get around to on your next flight to London? Still, with the lack of disconnected downtime, progress does have a price.

Aviation Business

I was saddened to hear that Aviation Business magazine is closing down. No doubt like countless Australian Aviation readers I was a longtime reader of the magazine, and its forebear, Aircraft.

For so long it has been a fixture in the Australian aviation media landscape, and its closure is a real loss.

I’ve viewed plans by all three local major airline groups to introduce Wi-Fi with more than a little dismay.