Working in Commercial Flights... Does it Work?

Last week I flew to Kuala Lumpur from Copenhagen... that's a 12 hour flight and I had economy seats on a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 plane. Since the flight departs morning I planned to work while on the flight... to my dismay there is not enough space to open my laptop and be comfortable enough to work... well at least type using the keyboard, and end up not being productive. When I got to Kuala Lumpur I felt like I just lost a day of work, and was very tired and sleepy on my way to an afternoon meeting.

On my return flight it’s the same story. It seems that on this economy flights there is not enough space to work, not even to watch an in-flight movie comfortably. In European flights there is enough space, at least, between seats that it’s possible to work while on transcontinental flight the space is tighter, plus the guy in front reclines his seat to be comfortable at your own expense. Now the question is can you really work while inside an airplane?

In business class or premium economy (old business class seats) for long haul flights, YES! Since there is enough space... In European flights, while in economy yes if you have a tablet pc or iPad or a small laptop. For long haul flights in economy forget about it, it does not work! This of course begs the question that "is it worth flying business in a long haul flight?" To me as an executive it is a decision based on cost effectiveness.

Here's how it works. If you fly for 12 hours, then potentially you can have 8 productive working hours. If your salary for 2 days is more than the cost of a business seat for your flight then I suggest you fly business since your productivity is more important than 2 lost days while on a plane and while recovering from such a long cramped flight. For short haul flights like European flights where you have enough space to work, better fly economy and by the way get a small pc if not an iPad.