GBTA Files Comments with DOT Asking for Ban on Cell Phone Voice Calls During Flights

GBTA Says: Silence is Golden

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Mar 26, 2014, 06:27 ET

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – filed comments on the Department of Transportation's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) Use of Mobile Wireless Devices for Voice Calls on Aircraft.

Reflecting feedback from across GBTA membership, which encompasses every aspect of the business travel industry, the comments state the use of mobile wireless devices for voice is detrimental to business travelers and should be banned between the time the aircraft door is closed and the aircraft lands.

"DOT's rulemaking should be guided by the late Pete Seeger, the champion of folk music and social change," said GBTA Executive Director and COO Michael W. McCormick. "In short, there is a time to speak out and a time to keep silent. Under its authority to ban unfair practices, DOT should choose the latter approach and ban mobile wireless voice calls during flight on aircraft."

"Additionally, in such a confined space, there is no reasonable way to provide quiet areas on aircrafts to reduce the harm of loud cellphone conversations. Unlike Amtrak's 'quiet cars,' GBTA does not believe it is feasible to create talk-free sections of aircraft. DOT should not add to business traveler's misery. On commercial aircraft in the United States, silence is golden."

About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world's premier business travel and meetings organization. Collectively, GBTA's 6,000-plus members manage over $340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its network of 21,000 business and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, with networking events, news, education & professional development, research, and advocacy. For more information, visit gbta.org

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SOURCE Global Business Travel Association