News

News flash: Travellers prefer Wi-Fi to food. In a study released this past month by the non-profit industry group WiFi Alliance, travellers revealed that when they're flying, they would rather have an Internet connection than a meal. This may explain the next trend in airline amenities: Wi-Fi is taking over the skies.

Over the past few months, Virgin America, Delta, American Airlines and AirTran have all introduced or expanded high-speed Wi-Fi service, and there are plans to introduce the technology in Canadian skies within a year. This represents an important change for business travellers: After all, flights have offered time to relax, read, revise, or simply think. As that downtime disappears, business trips will never be the same.

In-flight Wi-Fi had to arrive some time. Ever since those forearm-sized cellphones came onto the market in the eighties, our virtual offices have expanded to encompass ever greater swaths of the outside world. Laptops, the Internet, smart phones and Wi-Fi conquered more and more territory, gobbling up beaches and golf courses, restaurants and spas, until it was only 30,000 feet in the air that we were truly cut off.

And then Boeing made the first move toward sky-high Wi-Fi in 2003, when its subsidiary, Connexion, signed up Lufthansa as a client. Singapore Air quickly followed – but by 2006, Connexion folded, citing lack of consumer interest.

Three years later, much has changed. Virgin and the three U.S. airlines have all introduced service through a provider called Aircell. Virgin has high-speed Wi-Fi on all of its flights and Delta on more than half of its fleet of 530 aircraft; Delta plans to have it fleet-wide by the spring. At the moment, the service shuts down as soon as the plane crosses the Canadian border, but Air Canada has an agreement with Aircell, and the airline says it has plans to offer the service in Canada within the next year. Porter Airlines also says it is investigating the technology. In the meantime, Lufthansa announced on Monday that it will be restarting its in-flight Wi-Fi, which works wherever the planes fly, over land or water, by the middle of next year.

Linda Duxbury thinks this may not be a good thing. A professor at Carleton University's Sprott School of Business, she specializes in the study of work-related stress. “I think it's just going to ramp up the drive to do more and the drive to work harder and the drive to be available,” she says.

According to Prof. Duxbury, the idea of connecting on a flight will very quickly move from an option to a requirement. “I think it's going to result in increased pressure and stress,” she says, adding that increased stress has negative health effects (and thus an impact on the bottom line through benefits programs). She also doubts it will actually add much in the way of productivity.

Guy Kawasaki disagrees. One of the first marketers for Apple's Mac in 1984 (as well an influential blogger and tweeter), Kawasaki has been using in-flight Wi-Fi since it became available in the U.S. He even abandoned his super-elite-level frequent-flier status at United to use Virgin America whenever he can.

“From the moment they say it's okay to use your laptop to the moment they say to close it, I'm on,” he says. As for productivity, “I'm tweeting, I'm answering e-mails. I'm not sitting there watching YouTube videos of people dropping Mentos into Diet Coke.” And it doesn't matter how long or short the flight. “Anything over 30 minutes is crucial for me,” he says of his various pursuits as an entrepreneur.

Stress, Kawasaki adds, is not a big concern. “I don't think there are any companies who say to themselves, ‘He's on a flight, he should be working.' That would be a little heinous.”

As both Porter and Air Canada say they're looking into in-flight service, frequent fliers on this side of the border just seem eager to get those extra few hours of edge in.

As a developer-adviser for Microsoft, John Bristowe, a Calgarian who travels in Canada as much as three weeks a month, can't wait. “I work from anywhere and everywhere,” he says. “I'm constantly mobile, and anywhere that I can get connected online is a good thing in my opinion.”

Special to The Globe and Mail

Do you have feedback or business travel questions? E-mail roadwork@globeandmail.com.

Follow Road Work on Twitter @BertArcher.