British Airways To Allow Phone Calls Mid-Flight With Starlink Wi-Fi

British Airways is going against the grain, and will allow customers on Starlink-equipped aircraft to make phone calls once they are respectful to those around them.

I thought this may have been an April Fool’s joke, but their Starlink FAQ page actually has a section dedicated for phone call etiquette when using the service.

Enabling fast, reliable Wi-Fi on your flight is part of our journey to bring you the best possible on-board experience. To make sure every customer has an enjoyable flight, we ask you to follow these guidelines:​

• If you’re making a call, keep your voice low and use headphones.​
• lease always use headphones when watching or listening to content on your device.
• Please do not access anything offensive, or watch or download inappropriate content (please note some sites are blocked).

I’m not sure I can think of any carrier that allows phone calls over Wi-Fi (or in general mid-flight), with most either not having an explicit policy or outright banning any type of VOIP services. With the introduction of Starlink, some of related rules are being relaxed.

For instance, viewing video content on sites like YouTube and Twitch is now allowed thanks to higher download speeds and bandwidth, but most carriers implementing this service still disallow any type of voice or video calls.

British Airways seems to be doing the opposite, and will even allow video calling. Further down into their FAQ, they have a section dedicated to this.

“Yes, you can [make video calls]. We ask that you’re mindful of volume – use headphones and keep your voice low to avoid disturbing others.”

This is an interesting choice, and I suspect it won’t go well in the long run. With TikTok and Instagram Reels becoming such a commonplace form of entertainment, so has the bad habit of listening to everything on loud speaker. Recently, United banned this type of behavior outright in their Contract of Carriage. American Airlines was also in the news for throwing someone off a flight after they insisted on playing videos through their phone speakers rather than via a headset.

The problem won’t be so much the use of headsets, but might be the fact that some people forget they are not in their private office or living room, and may speak too loudly, disturbing those around them.

If this type of public behavior is slowly becoming the norm, why does BA think people are going to be respectful when it comes to phone calls? I know there are the few individuals who will be mindful, but sadly that’s not the case for today’s majority.

I suspect there will be a lot of enforcement and reminders needed to keep passenger at bay once Starlink services starts rolling out across the BA fleet.

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