The first of many...?

Silverjet has gone live with its mobile service and we wonder who will be next?

Other UK airlines have made noises in the same direction and recent Forrester research demonstrates the demand.

To be able to check schedules and flight status and choose your seat and meal on the go makes sense.

Many US airlines have been providing customers with a similar service for some time and bookings that side of the pond are increasing.

According Mobile Travel Technologies (Silverjet's partner in the new service) some US carriers are getting about 150,000 unique accesses a month.

MTT tells us that it's slightly easier over there because of the volume of travellers with Blackberries and similar devices.

As far as mobile internet is concerned MTT sees the world in two halves - Western Europe and the US where people 1are predominantly using it for information and to manage bookings and, Asia Pacific where residential broadband penetration is low so people use their mobiles for booking.

Silverjet tells us the service only took about six weeks to get up and running so it will be interesting to see how long the airline will retain its first mover advantage - if there's still such a thing!

MTT assures us it has a low-cost airline in the bag although it may not be as close to home as some think.

Meanwhile, Silverjet is pondering other ways to use mobile such as pushing relevant information out to travellers and enabling frequent passengers to develop a profile.

The airline tells us there is even an idea kicking about to synchronise flight schedules with Microsoft Outlook to see where potential gaps might be and then suggest things to do with that time.

So the airline would become an aggregator of information for its passengers offering services it knows they like such as restaurants and shows etc.

Yet more blurring of the lines.....

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution