Many business travellers treasure the peace and quiet they get while flying—but allowing the use of mobile phones on planes could be more than a minor irritation

The race to equip planes with mobile-phone services has triggered dismay among business travellers who used to value the few hours of private time that flights gave them.

We know from our last survey into business travel that while 48 per cent of IoD members welcome mobile phones on aeroplanes, the slender majority (52 per cent) don't want them. More significantly perhaps, where 38 per cent think that being able to use their mobile phone would encourage them to do more business in the air, 61 per cent thought it wouldn't.

Lurking in all this, I suspect, is a fear of the banal "I'm on the train!" style of conversations that bedevil rail journeys. Some of us dread the prospect of being trapped in the air with "I'm on the plane!" (let's call them IOTPs) conversationalists all around us. Others may fear making or receiving phone calls that neighbouring passengers consider to be embarrassingly IOTP-ish.

But there is another danger.

During the same month that we published our survey, a Vodafone UK survey found that more than 70 per cent of all workers acknowledge they conduct business on their mobile in public. No surprises there.

What's more, 43 per cent say they talk about colleagues and clients. A quarter chat about other people's careers and salaries. One in five discuss business-critical subjects, such as profits, losses and redundancies, and 15 per cent confirm that they openly discuss confidential new products or services while travelling in public.

You might think that's not much of a risk. You might assume that the chances of a commercial competitor listening in are slim. You'd be wrong. Over a quarter of workers also admit that they have followed up on a lead they have heard in someone else's phone conversation.

But there are signs that people are becoming more aware of the dangers of telephone indiscretion. More than half of the users surveyed said they were concerned about being overheard, and a fifth of them, particularly business users, employ code words for people, places and activities.

If companies have a mobile-phone policy at all, it is usually implemented by HR departments purely to cover legislation on the use of mobiles while driving. More companies need to address the practical use of mobiles both in the workplace and in public—including the content of IOTP conversations.

Perhaps a modern variation on the old wartime poster should start appearing on business-class menus and inflight magazines, warning flyers that careless talk costs livelihoods.