Congress Ignoring Facts, Not Living in Real World

The proposed provision would permanently ban aircraft passenger voice communications service using a mobile or wireless device and would deny passengers the convenience and choice of connectivity that consumers in other countries enjoy today.

As with the last Congress, the current Congress did not hold a hearing in any House committee or subcommittee, meaning that neither communication nor aviation experts had an opportunity to address the policy implications of this provision attached to an important and overdue piece of aviation legislation. Communication policies will be impacted and this should warrant input from Congressional Committees that deal with telecommunications and technology.

In-flight voice communication service for passengers has been deployed to 3 continents, 52 nations across Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East going to 240 destinations over 7,000 different routes.  There has been a uniform positive passenger response to this communication service. 80% of passengers who have used the service would like these services to be available on every flight.

The in-flight voice services that are currently being operated internationally have demonstrated that the concerns raised by Representative DeFazio have simply not occurred in real world experiences on the thousands of flights so equipped with the service.  Airlines and providers of in-flight communication services have taken practical and effective measures to ensure that enabling passengers to stay connected while in-flight does not prove irritating to fellow passengers.

Representative DeFazio does not target other modes of public transportation including bus, subway, rapid light rail, ferry and cruise ship that currently allow for the use of mobile phone voice service. “Passenger inconveniences” are managed quite well on all these modes of public transportation. There is nothing to suggest that the same cannot be accomplished on an airplane.

Congress is ignoring the facts of real world use and application of the service in international airspace and solely focusing on anecdotal and unsubstantiated “passenger annoyance" arguments.  This legislation is not fact based; it is a bad way to make public policy.

Our message to Congress is clear and straightforward - Hold up on passing the Hang Up section within the FAA Re-Authorization.