Here’s the middle ground on cellphone use on airplanes: Airlines need only remove one or two seats in the unloved last row on long-distance flights and install a tiny, soundproof “phone booth”-sized stand-up cubicle with access to cellular service by low-powered Bluetooth, limiting it to inside the booth.

As they so love to earn more money during flights, airlines would charge users’ credit cards $5 for the first minute, $10 for the second, $20 for the third, $40 for the fourth and so on.

Everybody happy? I gotta tell yinz everything?

Need for cellphone access: On long-distance flights, i.e., Chicago-Hawaii, etc., surely there are emergencies or forgetfulness that will make a cell call imperative. Examples: family problem just before takeoff, realized omission to someone before departure, etc.

John Lenkey

North Side

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---