Within months you will most likely be able to use your mobile phone on a Ryanair flight.
Can you imagine? Budget airlines already mean being squashed into seats, horrendous early-morning queues and an undesirable menu. Won't it add to the stress being crowded in next to someone making a loud mobile call, effectively ending one of the last mobile-free spaces?
The response of Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, is this:
If you want a quiet flight, use another airline. Ryanair is noisy, full and we are always trying to sell you something.
Pretty straightforward. So the rules go like this: only six people can use their phones at a time, but anyone can text or use their Blackberry. At first the service will be on 14 of the 166 aircraft, but within six months if the trial is successful it will be rolled out to the rest of the fleet.
Calls are predicted to cost about £2 a minute and the airline will get a slice from each text, email or call.
As Simon Calder pointed out in the Independent yesterday, it is one of many ploys being looked at by airlines to boost revenue.
As the low-cost airline industry plunges into its gloomiest ever winter, the quest for ''ancillaries'' is intensifying … with airlines making a loss on the tickets they are ever more desperate to find other revenue streams.
On this point, the Daily Mail reports today that British Airways could start charging for extras.
More legroom, an upgraded in-flight meal, priority boarding, a glass of water and alcohol could all be included in a new world where the basic cost is low and the extras (which used to be the things we received as part of the ticket) are where the airlines make their cash.
Are we the winners? Or do we just end up paying more and getting less?
