Departure lounge limbo costing businesses dear

Waiting in departure lounges for planes is not only a pain - it could be costing British business around £600m every year.

Around 35 per cent of business travellers spend three to four hours every month waiting for flights and BT - which serves parts of this addressable market through its Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots - has taken that and other figures to come up with the total of half a billion pounds plus (£599m to be precise) in annual wastage.

BT and others, whether using Wi-Fi or other wireless technologies - note the strong 3G signals at most European airports these days - are targeting this business traveller market.

Today's research found that 88 per cent of those surveyed feel it 'important' to be contactable. Seventy-three per cent said they feel the need to be reachable has increased over the past two years.

However, the time from entering a terminal to sitting waiting to board a plane looks set to shorten. This week international airports owner BAA talked about a reduction of that ordeal to just 15 minutes.

Last week silicon.com spoke to SITA chairman and BA CIO Paul Coby about the possibility of airlines adopting RFID electronic tagging technology, potentially for documents as well as luggage.