Ryanair: Cellphones Coming to Some Planes This Month (at The Wall Street Journal Online)

It was bound to happen some time. Later this month, European low-cost carrier Ryanair will allow passengers to talk on cellphones during flights on 10 of its planes — provided the airline gets the right regulatory approvals from sundry “eejits,” Ryanair’s outspoken boss Michael O’Leary told the British newspaper the Mail. (Hat-tip to the Economist’s Gulliver.) The Mail’s Travel Editor Frank Barrett writes: I assumed that this would be yet another new Ryanair profit centre to sit alongside the additional charges for checking-in bags, having priority boarding or buying a Ryanair lottery ticket (curiously, I’ve so far resisted the charms of the Ryanair lottery ticket). But no. Mr. O’Leary assures me that mobile phone users would pay the normal roaming costs applicable when you use your phone anywhere abroad. ‘There’s no way that... [read full story]