British Airways is first European airline to allow electronics use during takeoff and landing
Following the wave of US airlines that changed policy after the FAA reassessed the rules, British Airways is letting passengers keep their electronic devices switched on for the entirety of their flight.
Context & Ripple Effects
The FAA opened this door earlier in 2013, when it signalled it might loosen its curbs on fliers' electronics use (the agency's rule review), and by November JetBlue and Delta had already flipped their policies (allowing gadgets during takeoff and landing). British Airways is now the first carrier to import that US precedent into Europe.
The pickup here is unusually broad — the Guardian, Gizmodo, the Inquirer, PhoneArena and Softpedia all ran the story on or about December 19 — reflecting how visible the US policy shift was and how much attention falls on whichever European airline moves first. It also lands amid a wider push to make flights fully connected, exemplified by Southwest's plan for gate-to-gate Wi-Fi service announced the previous month.
First-order effects
- BA passengers can keep phones, tablets and e-readers switched on from gate to gate, ending the ritual shutdown on European-flagged flights.
- Rival European carriers face immediate passenger expectations set by a first mover, with no equivalent European regulatory green light yet announced in this corpus.
Second-order effects
- European regulators come under pressure to align with the FAA's reassessed position, or risk a patchwork where the same device is legal on one side of the Atlantic and not the other.
- Airlines' connectivity investments — Wi-Fi fleets and gate-to-gate service plans like Southwest's — gain value once devices stay powered throughout the flight, making always-on electronics and paid connectivity a bundled proposition.
Third-order effects
- If the FAA-derived standard spreads across Europe, in-flight electronics policy shifts structurally from blanket prohibition to certified use, with each national or regional regulator setting the pace for its carriers.
- The cabin experience increasingly competes on continuous connectivity rather than route network alone — an arc that traces back to American Airlines' early move into onboard Wi-Fi back in 2007 (its then-novel Wi-Fi rollout).
The trend: Aviation electronics regulation is moving regulator-by-regulator from blanket device bans to certified gate-to-gate use, with Europe beginning to follow the FAA's lead.