BA offers seat phones

THE DAYS of peaceful snoozing in airline seats may be over. British Airways is installing telephones as an experiment on its main domestic routes from the end of this month, and other airlines are set to follow its example.

There will be two credit-card telephones for every three seats on BA flights and passengers will be able to make calls to any of the 200 countries that can be dialled directly. The cost will be at least pounds 3.30 per minute or part of a minute. BA will offer the service on flights from London to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Aberdeen and Newcastle.

Graham Lamble, marketing communications manager of Jetphone, which is operating the phones, said: 'It's a good deal for phoning abroad.' He expects that by 1997, Jetphone's service will be available on 600 European aircraft.