South Africa Pioneering a Study on Mobile Phone Use in Flights

South Africa Pioneering a Study on Mobile Phone Use in Flights

The Civil Aviation Authority, the regulatory body of the aviation industry in South Africa, is reconsidering its policy banning mobile phone use in flights.

This follows an application by South African Airways, the government-owned national airline, requesting the Civil Aviation Authority to reconsider the policy which has been in place for a number of years.

The in-flight use of mobile phones has been banned in a number of other countries due to concerns that their electromagnetic signals may interfere with flight systems in the cockpit, and in particular, the flight navigation systems.

However, the data which led to these bans has been criticised as being outdated, and recent studies, including a study undertaken by aircraft manufacturer Boeing, have indicated that these concerns may be unfounded as the amount of electromagnetic interference caused by a number of modern mobile phone models is negligible.

In 2008, Emirates Airline, the national airline of Dubai and the largest airline in the Middle East, began allowing in-flight voice calls on a number of its flights. In line with this trend, Malaysia Airlines similarly allows voice calls and mobile phone text messaging in a number of its commercial flights.

South African Airways will begin a testing phase to investigate which phone models do not interfere with flight navigation systems. Meanwhile, Comair, which owns British Airways and South African low-cost carrier Kulula.com, has also announced that the Civil Aviation Authority has given it permission to allow the use of mobile phones on its flights on a trial basis, and will shortly begin trials to test the effects of mobile phone use in its flights.

1time, another low-cost airline operating in South Africa, has also started a testing phase in which it allows passengers to switch their mobile phones on after takeoff, but requires them to switch them off again before the descent for landing. Passengers taking part in these trials are requested to complete surveys at the end of the flights, in order to collect data as part of the study.

The study in South Africa will be one of the largest studies of its kind to date, and will provide data that is likely to influence the policy on in-flight mobile phone use in South Africa as well as in many other countries.

The Civil Aviation Authority has not provided an indication of when a final decision regarding in-flight voice calls and text messaging will be made.

Jonathan Peters is the content syndication manager of a leading South African travel information and booking portal, flightnetwork.co.za, which allows visitors to search for flights from the country's major airlines and book cheap flights online.

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By Johnny Peters