It was a question of flight connections.

BBC: SPORT | Football | African | Kalusha's trip 11 years on

Air France said the changes to the flight times offered more connections.

CNN: Concorde returns to New York

Many airlines already sell in-flight Wi-Fi connections for laptop computers and tablets, so the logical next step would be to allow airborne passengers to use their cell phones to connect to the world below.

CNN: Cell phones on planes? For texting, not gabbing

Mr. Tikvesa, who is 6-feet, 5-inches tall and calls strangers "boss, " gets printouts of top-tier customers with tight connections and has access to flight updates and gate information on his smartphone.

WSJ: The Tarmac Express: A Porsche to the Plane

Aircell's Gogo in-flight internet system, in use on several US carriers, offers only data connections now, but there have been reports of passengers bypassing blocks and using Gogo to conduct VOIP calls while in flight.

BBC: More flights allow mobile calls