Airline Passengers Reject In-Flight Mobile Phones

A few days after low-cost airline, Ryanair announced plans to offer mobile phone service on its flights, rival airline Monarch released the results of a survey conducted last year which said that 67% of passengers claimed that using a mobile phone during a flight and having to listen to other people's annoying ringtones would be one of the most annoying inflight experiences for them.

Over 1,500 Monarch passengers responded to a survey, in which they were asked to identify the three things that would annoy them the most during a flight. Top of the 'annoying things' table with 78% was the person sitting behind them knocking their seat, with this being closely followed by the person infront of them reclining their seat (69%).

Despite the use of mobile phones not currently being permitted on flights, passengers clearly believe that their use would be a huge irritant and voted it into third place (67%), beating having to sit next to a smelly passenger (53%).

The survey of 1548 Monarch passengers was conducted in November 2005. Responders were asked to select the three things that would annoy them the most during a flight - full results below:

78% The person behind knocking your seat

69% The person infront reclining their seat

67% Mobile phone use during a flight

53% Smelly passengers

18% Obnoxious passengers

10% Passengers leaving the toilets in a mess

3% Other passengers music/games

1% Overly chatty passengers

1% Overly amorous passengers"

Posted to the site on 5th September 2006