Ryanair 11 ( The Redemption)

[Lizard]

Ryanair plans to allow passengers mobile access to voice and text communications on all of its flights from the middle of 2007.

The budget airline announced on Wednesday that it will partner with OnAir, an Airbus and Sita joint in-flight communications venture, which plans to fit the entire Ryanair fleet with technology called Mobile OnAir. Initially fifty aircraft will be equipped by mid-2007, with further installations following.

"There's clearly a trial element, but we don't have any concerns that people won't use it," said Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, at a press briefing in London. "If it doesn't work, clearly it'll come off the aircraft," O'Leary added.

I love this Airline and it,s MD, they are the best thing since best things were invented, god bless Mr O Leary, and all who sail in him.

Liz. (pissed)

[Mysteryman]

...and your point is?

[Lizard]

Read all the positive feedback........just another senseless idea from Moron o Leary.

[Lizard]

[Mysteryman]

So, providing a facility for passengers is pointless?

Is it pointless for a full service airline to provide on board phones at an extremely high cost - certainly more than the mobile companies charge for roaming?

As for the feedback, there are always people willing to bash a success. Pretty pointless really as the success continues to grow.

What's your personal beef against O'Leary?

As for the phone service, I'd rather not have every idiot yabbering away during a flight as they do everywhere else, but that's their choice and if someone can make money from it, they will.

[Bob Singleton]

Sorry if these seem like stupid questions, but I understood mobiles were banned because they might interfere with the "fly-by-wire" controls of many modern planes.

What is there to stop us using a mobile phone in mid air now that Ryan Air can remove/facilitate and charge us for?

If mobile phones can be used to trigger bombs (the inference from the recent Heathrow security clampdown) will this service have a point (yes we now have the technology to use mobiles in flight...unfortunately, all mobiles must be switched off and placed in the hold!)

If a mobile can already be used on a plane how can Ryan Air charge passengers for using them?

If a mobile cannot currently be used on a plane (and I mean for technical reasons), how did so many air passengers phone their loved ones from mobiles on 9/11? And if it was possible to make a mobile phone call from a plane in September 2001, how come no-one has seemingly made any since?

I was also under the belief that mobile phones only have a certain range (hence mobile phone masts everywhere)... how does a person on a mobile phone at 60,000ft and travelling at 500+ knots in the middle of the Atlantic communicate with someone in, say, London?

[strictlybroadband]

Mobiles generate electro-magnetic fields that can confuse compasses. Other than that, I don't think there's any serious safety issue involved. In these days of GPS, compasses may be more or less redundant.

Mobiles can work several miles from transmitters, especially above them because there are no obstacle, so they could already be used over populated land. But they won't work over sea or wilderness, so presumably Ryanair will install a small mobile base station on the plane, which then passes the signal on to the outside world via radio or satellite.

Bob Singleton wrote:

> Sorry if these seem like stupid questions, but I understood
> mobiles were banned because they might interfere with the
> "fly-by-wire" controls of many modern planes.
>
> What is there to stop us using a mobile phone in mid air now
> that Ryan Air can remove/facilitate and charge us for?
>
> If mobile phones can be used to trigger bombs (the inference
> from the recent Heathrow security clampdown) will this service
> have a point (yes we now have the technology to use mobiles in
> flight...unfortunately, all mobiles must be switched off and
> placed in the hold!)
>
> If a mobile can already be used on a plane how can Ryan Air
> charge passengers for using them?
>
> If a mobile cannot currently be used on a plane (and I mean for
> technical reasons), how did so many air passengers phone their
> loved ones from mobiles on 9/11? And if it was possible to make
> a mobile phone call from a plane in September 2001, how come
> no-one has seemingly made any since?
>
> I was also under the belief that mobile phones only have a
> certain range (hence mobile phone masts everywhere)... how does
> a person on a mobile phone at 60,000ft and travelling at 500+
> knots in the middle of the Atlantic communicate with someone
> in, say, London?
>
>