|
By Matthew Quinn
Preferred inflight meal: wi-fi and juice
Frequent flyers are starved. But it appears they're hungering more for the Internet and email than for medallions of beef.
Nearly half of the 1,500 business travelers surveyed by American Airlines and Hewlett-Packard said Wi-Fi was the most important airport amenity, beating basic needs like food by almost 30 percentage points.
And airline executives seem to be listening—finally. Earlier this month, AirTran announced it will have Wi-Fi access on its entire fleet of 136 airplanes by mid-summer. Delta Air Lines also said this month it has already installed Wi-Fi on 139 of the more than 300 planes it operates on U.S. routes, with the remainder getting hooked up by September. In the survey, American said it expects to install Wi-Fi on its more than 300 domestic planes over the next two years.
The survey found that more than 90% of respondents traveled with a laptop and phone. Their single biggest complaint? Not surprisingly, running out of juice, with 41.4% pointing to a dead battery and 26.3% choosing a lack of power outlets as their primary lamentations. Nearly a quarter said access to electrical power is the most important tech amenity onboard a plane.
If Wi-Fi was available on a plane, 70.5% of those surveyed said they'd turn to their notebook to work, while just under 20% would use their mobile device as their primary business tool.
But the lack of outlets—and Internet blackout—means the friendly skies aren't so friendly for business travelers. Not surprisingly, the survey found that productivity takes a substantial hit once it's wheels up. A bit more than 96% of respondents said they conducted work at their hotels and 85% got things done at the airport. By comparison, only 52.6% said they kept at it in the air.
In fact , three-fourths of the respondents said they scrambled to conduct work-related duties, like sending emails and making calls, prior to takeoff.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
