66 per cent of travellers would use their mobile phones inflight
Hamburg, Germany | April 10, 2014– A poll of German travellers has revealed a huge appetite for inflight mobile services including SMS, email and mobile-enabled internet access in the aircraft cabin.

Over 66 per cent of Germans surveyed said they would use their mobile phones during a flight if they had the option, mainly to stay entertained during long hours in the air.

Almost half (47 per cent) of those would use an inflight mobile connection for surfing the internet and just over a fifth (21 per cent) would check social media sites, while 58 per cent would opt for text messaging.

Almost a third (32 per cent) of people said they would use the service to make a call or check voicemail at 30,000ft.

The survey of 2,000 German consumers conducted by AeroMobile, a leading mobile phone operator for the aviation industry, reflects Germany’s increasing appetite for mobile technology.

More than half of people questioned said they expect inflight mobile connectivity to become standard in the next few years and 60 per cent believe an airline with an inflight mobile service is cutting edge.

“The results of this survey certainly reflect our experience at AeroMobile,” said Kevin Rogers, CEO of AeroMobile.

“In 2013 we saw close to an 80 per cent increase in the number of travellers using their mobile phones in the aircraft cabin and data usage on our network went up 10 fold. We also saw a 50 per cent increase in SMS traffic.”

German flag-carrier Lufthansa launched its inflight mobile phone service with AeroMobile earlier this year and has confirmed it will roll out mobile connectivity across its entire long-haul fleet of over 100 aircraft.

The AeroMobile network allows passengers to roam just as they would abroad. The company has live roaming agreements with over 250 mobile phone operators worldwide, including German networks T-Mobile, Vodafone, e-Plus and O2 Germany.