Internet in the Skies?

Travel Blog  •  Rob Verger  •  02.13.09 | 12:00 PM ET

World Hum contributor Eric Weiner had a fantastic op-ed piece on N.P.R. on Wednesday in which he passionately argues against internet availability on airplanes. “Some of my best ideas take flight at 35,000 feet,” he says. “It could be the thin air up there, but I think there’s another reason: disconnection. No e-mail, no cell phones.”

“The airline cabin represents the last refuge from ubiquitous connectivity,” he continues, “the last place where we are forced, for better or worse, to be with ourselves ... and our thoughts.”

I agree. I spend most flights in a trance-like state, staring out the window, absently watching a movie or listening to music. As Eric Weiner put it, I love that time with myself—I find it to be rejuvenating, centering.

I absolutely don’t want my cell phone (or, more importantly, my neighbor’s cell phone) to work. But I’m also conflicted, I’ll admit. I check my email about as frequently as I blink. If, one day, internet access were not only available on all or most flights, but was free—would I use it and enjoy it? Absolutely. And, in that case, would something have been lost about air travel, as Eric Weiner argues? Perhaps.

Southwest Airlines, by the way, has said it is beginning to test free internet access via satellite on one plane.


Rob Verger

Rob Verger is a frequent contributor to World Hum and the site's former air travel blogger. His articles and photographs have appeared in the Boston Globe and other publications, and he's a former undergraduate writing instructor at Columbia University. If you like, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or follow him on Twitter.


6 Comments for Internet in the Skies?

Sophia Dembling 02.13.09 | 4:48 PM ET

I like to believe I would be capable of resisting Internet in the air, but I know I couldn’t and I hate that. If not for airplanes, my New Yorker magazines never get read. As it is, I don’t fly enough to keep up with the damn things.

Jenna Schnuer 02.14.09 | 2:44 AM ET

I want to hate the idea but I don’t hate the idea. Hell, I even enjoyed WiFi on the Bolt bus from NYC to Boston. (I mean, WiFi on a bus? Who wouldn’t love that?) But I do hate the slippery slope of the airplane WiFi idea—an ok on high-flying cell phone calls would be next and that idea makes me want to pull my face off.

Ling 02.14.09 | 10:11 AM ET

Don’t want to sound morbid, but have you thought about one thing - What happens if you have wi-fi on a plane, and someone’s twittering it all, along with live streaming video of the inside of a plane in distress. You think the world is ready to watch people die live from inside a plane? Thanks, but no thanks. I think that would be a bit too much reality for me.

Pam Mandel 02.14.09 | 4:05 PM ET

Internet for me, but not for anyone else. Yes, I am that person. I hate the idea of sitting next to the glowing monitor of my neighbor on a long haul flight while they surf E Online to see what the celebs are wearing or, god forbid, there they are downloading porn. Come on, it’s gonna happen, you know it.

Internet. So many other things are messed up with service in the air. Internet is not going to make me forget that I had to pay for a pillow.

Insert scowling, Grampa Simpson like remarks here.

Jenna Schnuer 02.14.09 | 4:08 PM ET

But Ling—by that standard, we should stop all communication from everywhere just in case something happens. I’d rather err on the side of things will go ok. (Please don’t tell anybody that I live by a slightly sunny rule like that.)

Rob Verger 02.15.09 | 12:08 AM ET

Dear Ling,

Your comment reminded me of an incident in 2005 with a JetBlue Airbus 320. The front landing gear somehow got stuck in the wrong position after takeoff, and the plane circled for a while, using up fuel and getting ready to make a tricky landing. The news picked up the story while the plane was in the air, and the passengers on the plane could watch the story about themselves on the T.V. monitors on the seats in front of them. Weird. Everything turned out fine, thank god. Here’s the story and a video if you’re interested: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9430871/

Best, Rob

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