Is Airplane Mode on Flights Necessary or Outdated? (2025)

You little anarchist. They told you to switch to airplane mode, and you just … didn’t. Maybe you were sending one last Slack; maybe you decided not to take PTO and you’re in the middle of a Zoom call; or maybe you just don’t like being told what to do. Either way, you’re not alone. A 2017 Allianz Travel Insurance survey of over 1,500 Americans found that 40 percent admitted to sometimes skipping airplane mode. Nearly 14 percent said they had sneaked in a mid-flight call or SMS. But does it even matter? If cell phones were such a threat to aviation, wouldn’t the Transportation Security Administration confiscate your smartphone instead of that water bottle you forgot in your backpack? After all, there are no documented catastrophic incidents directly caused by someone’s FaceTime. Is airplane mode just another outdated travel ritual from the flip-phone era, like applauding the landing? (Maybe we should revive that one …) Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporti ... Read full article.