You know the feeling - you've forgotten to turn off the oven or to ask someone to feed the cat and you're 36,000 feet up in the air with 10 hours of flying between you and the time you can switch your mobile on.

For all those last-minute details, or just for saying hi for a lot less than it costs to use the in-flight phones, airlines are now rolling out text messaging or emailing for passengers.

Virgin Atlantic and Singapore Airlines are introducing a service for messages of under 160 characters to their fleet. And British Airways next February plans to start a three-month trial for passengers in its First, Club and World Traveller Plus cabins to surf the internet on their own laptops.

It's still pricier than on the ground but Virgin Atlantic's charge of £1.75 per message is a bargain compared with $9 (£6) a minute on the phone. Virgin started introducing the system, whereby passengers travelling in all classes tap their messages on a virtual keyboard in their personal screens, in August. It is now installed on several planes and should be introduced to the whole fleet within a year.

Singapore Airlines is one month into a three-month trial on its route from Singapore to Chicago via Amsterdam. The airline said the service - for which it does not yet charge - is part of a general move to create a 'cybercabin'.

There's a catch - though you can send messages, you can't yet receive them. Virgin says it plans to add that service sometime in the new year.