MPs join mobile-free flights campaign

Link: MPs join fight for mobile-free flights | Travel News | Travel | Telegraph

In something more reminiscent of a Daily Mail middle England petition, the Daily Telegraph have launched a campaign to ban mobile phones on planes – even before the technology has gone live.

It’s been less than a month since European regulators gave the go-ahead to OnAir and Airbus to offer in-flight mobile calling, but already it’s causing a stir in Westminster’s corridors of power, with MPs lending their support to the newspapers campaign.

Telegraph Travel has been inundated with hundreds of letters and emails from irate readers. Many have threatened to boycott airlines that allow mobile phones, for reasons ranging from safety fears to potential causes of air rage.

Despite OnAir’s claims that 80 per cent of passengers like the idea of being able to use phones on aircraft, not one reader wrote to us in support of the introduction of mobile phones on flights.

And in a rather scaremongering comment, Conservative MP for Ilford North (and member of the Transport Select Committee) Lee Scott told the paper: “The Madrid train bombs in 2004 were set off by mobile phones. What will be the security implications of everyone having mobiles switched on at 30,000ft? It can only put even greater pressure on airport security staff.”

You can join the campaign – and view feedback from other Telegraph readers – here.