By the year 2008 almost 50 per cent of airlines will offer in-flight mobile phone connectivity for all passengers.
Airline IT Trends released an annual survey highlighting what passengers want to be introduced into airlines services. These figures showed an appetite for a range of in-flight passenger communications, with 59 per cent of airlines also planning to offer Internet and email access by the end of same year.
The survey was conducted among the world's top 200 airlines by SITA and Airline Business magazine.
Telecoms regulators are expected to approve the use of mobile phones by passengers on short-haul airlines by the end of this year. UK airline BMI has already signed up for trials of a satellite based technology that will have in-flight mobile calls by next year, along with Air France, Portugal's TAP and Ryanair.
The survey highlighted other issues, such as the increasing adoption of self service technology for passengers. 42 per cent of all airlines are now using online check in’s, which is expected to increase to almost 75 per cent by the end of next year.
Online bookings have also seen a huge rise with a third of airline tickets worldwide now being sold the Internet, compared with just 20 per cent in the previous year.
Mobile phone connectivity is not the only service airlines are planning on introducing.
IP connectivity is on board 80 per cent of airline locations, and this is predicted to rise to 93 per cent within the next two years, due to demand. Almost 80 per cent of airline systems are also IP enabled and this is expected to rise to 87 per cent by the end of 2008.
The chairman of airline industry IT body SITA and CIO of British Airways, Paul Coby, said, "Airlines are on course to be the world's first fully Web enabled industry."
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