Emirates airline has announced the first commercial airline policy on allowing passengers to make cellular phone calls during flights. Emirates said that the policy was decided after experiencing high demand for the phones already installed in aircraft seats. With the approval to adopt the system from international air safety organisations, Emirates has implemented the policy on Airbus A340 aircraft during a flight between Dubai and Casablanca. The system was developed by the AeroMobile company which stops mobiles from interfering with a plane’s electronics.

Passengers will be able to access mobile service only when the aircraft is at cruising altitude and the cabin crew will monitor and control the use of the system. Not only for calls, Emirates plans to extend the system to allow data service and blackberry service on the fleet. Passengers are requested to keep their phones in “silent mode” so other passengers will not be disturbed.

Australian carrier Qantas also have announced plans to permit passengers to use their cell phones in flight. They has tried out its plan for nine months on one airplane to collect passenger’s reaction as well as the reaction of the aircraft systems. Later this year, Qantas will expand the program to other Boeing 767s and Airbus 330s in its fleet. Qantas so far allow to use mobile service for text messages and email but not voice calls, during flights.

Tags: flight phone call, phone call on flight