Idea of Cell Phones in Air Met with Bad Reception

It ranks worse than a crying child on an airliner. It's more annoying than a snoring passenger.

It's the airline passenger who wants to use a personal cell phone in flight.

That's what business travelers said when asked in a survey whether they would approve of personal cell phone use being allowed on airliners. Cell phone use is currently banned during flight, but companies developing new technologies are lobbying the federal government and airlines to allow them.

A majority of the 1,600 members who responded to an International Airline Passengers Association survey said they want a break from cell phone use, even though 90 percent carry cell phones when they travel, said Nancy McKinley, IAPA manager of government and industry affairs.

The only thing worse than someone nearby gabbing on a personal cell phone would be someone constantly kicking their seat from behind, survey respondents said.

"When I heard that companies were marketing technology for airborne personal cell phone technology, I kept saying, 'This will be terrible,' so we polled the membership," McKinley said.

The survey is not scientifically valid, but it provides a general sense of members' views about cell phone use on flights. The Dallas-based association plans to use the survey when it approaches Congress later this summer about the issue.

"It would be extremely aggravating to be forced to listen to other peoples' cell phone conversations," one respondent wrote according to documents provided by the IATA-USA. The association did not disclose names of survey respondents.

"Allowing the use of phones and ring tones will make flights unbearable," another wrote.

"A person giving orders through a phone to a bomber is frightening," wrote a survey respondent concerned about airline security.

The prospects for in-flight personal cell phone use has gained momentum in recent years as companies have developed technologies that improve transmissions from the satellite cell phone networks that airlines use.

Many airlines have done away with phones embedded in the back of seats for passengers, largely because they weren't used much. Some airlines have retained them on jets used on long flights.

"We see the need for people on long flights of more than four to six hours of being able to make calls," American Airlines spokesman Billy Sanez said.

"One thing we know is that our customers like to have data available, like from their BlackBerries," Sanez said. "But we want to hear what our passengers think. That is the key."

A Carnegie Mellon University report released in February said portable electronic devices present a higher risk to flight safety than previously thought. Radio frequency emissions can disrupt cockpit instruments, the report said.

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