Have you ever wondered why Airlines won’t let you make phone calls, send emails or text messages when you’re in flight?  The truth is in most cases you won’t be able to get a service signal until you are close to land.  Some of you may have even secretly used your phone against the instructions of your flight attendant.  Well Finnair will begin enabling passengers to send mobile text messages and e-mails on flights to the Far East starting next month. 

The service will become possible on satellite telephones provided at each seat of the airline’s new Airbus A340 aircraft, scheduled to launch in June. The service will be limited to flights from Helsinki to the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Nagoya, and Shanghai, China. 

Passengers will be able to freely use email and text message but each sent or received message will cost $2. Passengers will be able to call each other during flights. 

Now you’re probably asking what about Internet services?  Well Last year, the Boeing Co. pulled the plug on Connexion, a pay-for-use in flight high-speed Internet service. The aircraft manufacturer said that it was received with mixed emotions by airlines that were reluctant to invest long term into the project. 

This is good news… I mean for hyperactive, mobile phone junkies such as myself.  Not that I will be a frequent passenger of Finnair but the fact that Boeing, the recognized leader of airplane construction is looking to engineer their new units to better accommodate the business traveler or the tech junkie passenger is great news.  Although the airlines’ eventual adoption of a modified and less expensive version of Connexion will spell the full industry shift this is no doubt a step to allowing the passengers to maintain contact even when…they’re out of contact.