Just how much do airline passengers use social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter? Just do a search for “tweeting at 30,000 feet” on Twitter and you can see how many people are doing it at the moment (and that’s just counting the ones who say they are tweeting at 30,000 feet – there are others at 35,000).

Some go further, posting pictures of clouds from their window seats, such as http://twitpic.com/lndx7 (thanks to @jordantowerJTF), http://twitpic.com/l10bs (@eezeer) and http://twitpic.com/l908v (@joebachman). Others post about the quality of their in-flight entertainment (or problems with it - http://twitpic.com/l5i39 - @marymuses).

Here at the Times, we haven’t ignored the potential of in-flight tweeting. When one of our journalists tweeted from the inaugural flight of British Airways’ all-business-class services between London City and New York JFK a few weeks ago, he showed the potential of the technology. Some who followed our coverage wondered whether his tweets were the first ever real-time review of a new airline service.

Lufthansa, which will soon rejoin the ranks of airlines with in-flight wi-fi thanks to a new deal with Panasonic, clearly feels left out from all this in-air tweetery and has launched a service called My Sky Status.

The idea behind My Sky Status is simple. You just enter the details of your flight and your Twitter or Facebook details and the service automatically updates your status while you are en route. A typical post might read: “Socialgeek is now flying over Shannon, Ireland. Click here to track their progress on MySkyStatus.” If you don’t want hourly updates, you can just get it to tweet or post when you depart and arrive.

A search on Twitter for MySkyStatus shows several people every day are taking advantage of the service, which even works for airlines other than Lufthansa.

It’s an interesting development but one wonders who will benefit most from the service – travellers addicting to tweeting or burglars who will use it to find out about people who are stuck at 30,000 feet and not at home.