Back in 1997, an episode of Seinfeld introduced the world to a unique approach to long-haul travel. David Puddy, played by Patrick Warburton, the boyfriend of Elaine Benes (Julia Louis Dreyfus), decided he would just stare at the back of the seat in front of him for the whole flight.<\/p>\n
No television, no movies, no headphones, no books, not even a nap. He was going to sit upright, eyes-open, and stare straight ahead for what was meant to be a very long trip. <\/p>\n
Although this was wild even to contemplate almost three decades ago, it isn\u2019t viewed in quite so simple a light today.<\/p>\n
Is airplane mode really just a setting on your phone? That\u2019s the philosophical question that has moved to the foreground in recent days. <\/p>\n
On Monday, EasyJet<\/a> announced it would install Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s Starlink <\/a>internet across its fleet during the first half of next year, with roll-out completed in 2028.<\/p>\n Aer Lingus<\/a> already offers Starlink on its transatlantic flights with plans eventually to extend it to European flights. <\/p>\n The jump from wifi of any standard on a plane being impressive to high speed being the norm has come about rather quickly.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Aer Lingus has begun its free in-flight wifi. Bang goes a rare oasis of tranquillity<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Airline wifi has, for most of the 20 years it has been available, been somewhat of a joke. Typically it has been considered slow, expensive and definitely not reliable. Yet that\u2019s far too broad an assumption.<\/p>\n Even back in 2019, I recall an Air France<\/a> trip back from China where I was overjoyed that the quality was good enough to watch Dublin beat Mayo in the All Ireland semi-final<\/a>. Still, that was definitely the exception, not the norm.<\/p>\n With Starlink\u2019s satellites orbiting around 550 kilometres above ground, they are shortening the journey that was previously needed for signals to reach planes.<\/p>\n With the Aer Lingus transatlantic fleet as an example, the speeds promised exceed 500Mbps. When it comes to connectivity quality, that\u2019s absolutely stellar stuff. <\/p>\n With EasyJet, well it\u2019s essentially the same service only focused squarely on short-haul. That is rather new as plane wifi has thus far almost exclusively been targeted at long-haul by carriers in Europe.<\/p>\n It is a huge step for wifi to go from being an available extra service towards it being expected on all journeys in the not-too-distant future. It\u2019s heavenly to some of you and no doubt a nightmare to others.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the last acceptable excuse for being unreachable is disappearing. An aeroplane is one of the few places where you have outright immunity from checking emails or messages. That\u2019s from everyone in your life, although, for most of us, the first thing to come to mind is work<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 35,000 feet above ground embracing the engineering miracle of mechanised flight\u201d won\u2019t necessarily be considered a good enough excuse any more.<\/p>\n Yet the benefits are substantial. That game I watched back in 2019 was exactly what I needed. I\u2019d just spent a couple of hours in Hong Kong airport interviewing protesters and it was emotionally moving and draining. Being able to decompress by watching Con O\u2019Callaghan and Paul Mannion run riot was the best possible thing for me at the time.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the matter of parents travelling with children. As a child-free person, I was surprised by how popular YouTube premium is with parents. Several have told me it\u2019s the last subscription they would consider giving up. For them it is a reliable way to make sure their kids have access to their favourite videos while travelling. Getting that access on planes only adds to that support for parents.<\/p>\n Connectivity doesn\u2019t have to be about productivity. An employer who expects you to stay connected with work when you\u2019re on a plane probably has a lot more wrong with them than just that.<\/p>\n Smart bosses know that rest matters. Even remotely intelligent ones know that flights are tiring in and of themselves, so it\u2019s not like you\u2019re getting a net productivity benefit by irking staff while they\u2019re strapped to a seat high above the ground.<\/p>\n Retaining the ability to disconnect should not come down to whether there actually is a connection. <\/p>\n