Every second counts in social media

By Steve Keenan

It wasn’t long ago that most people, if asked in a survey, disparaged the idea of allowing mobile calls from a plane.

How quaint! Now, the boundaries of mobile/social free zones are being pushed back daily - privacy, or quiet zones, are being marginalised.

Indeed, commercial concerns have barged in to push back those boundaries in the imperative to grab an advantage. The Wild West of social media continues unabated.

The main travel battleground is in the airport, where many owners have worked out that free wifi attracts more positives than charging a pittance to annoy travellers. But it’s a slow process - just four out of 25 UK airports offer free, says a report in the Daily Telegraph.

Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh and London City airports are the honourable exceptions, joining long-time European heroes Dublin and Vienna. Other ‘freemium’ airports are listed on a very handy checklist from Cheapflights.

Yet the first 1m check-in total on foursquare was at an airport, Atlanta. People check-in at an airport readily, if only to mark the beginning of a journey (or the euphoric end of one, on the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow).

And as airports (and hotels) become more user-friendly, so have airlines. On Monday, British Airways takes another giant step when to becomes the first airline in Europe to allow customers to switch on mobiles and other handheld electronic devices after landing.

Every second counts when it comes to access, particularly on 3G/4G when no free wifi is available. Perhaps BA is thinking more of its business customers, gagging to check work emails.

But BA recognises the thirst for access across all classes of customer. Previously, customers have had to wait until their aircraft is at the gate to log-in. From Monday, it will be when the aircraft leaves the runway - minutes only perhaps, but we all know the demand is there.

“British Airways has now demonstrated to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that their customers can safely use their handheld electronic devices, once their aircraft vacates the runway,” said a spokesman. The new move applies to every BA flight landing around the world, not just in the UK and Europe.

And so the race for complete coverage continues, from incremental moves on runways to free terminal access and, eventually, Cloud coverage for free. We’ll look back on this period and laugh - but be pitifully grateful in between.