News

Emirates has operated the first flight to or from the UK to offer inflight mobile use.

One in five passengers on a service from Dubai to London Heathrow on 7 April reportedly used their mobiles, sending and receiving about 100 text messages and making more than 30 calls.

Mobile use is still banned in UK airspace but a recent ruling by communications watchdog Ofcom is expected to see the use of phones on aircraft fully authorised in the near future.

Emirates allows its passengers to use their phones on only 10% of its flights and the facility is restricted to times when planes are above 23,000 feet.

With passengers required to keep their phones on silent at all times, the scheme appears to have been a success so far, with no complaints from customers.

Airline spokesman Patrick Brannelly said: 'The cabin noise level on airliners is such that you cannot hear people making phone calls and the call quality has been so good there has been no need to shout.'

The AeroMobile technology used by Emirates, which works with weaker mobile phone signals and therefore does not interfere with navigation equipment, has also been trialled by carriers including Air France-KLM, Qantas and Turkish Airlines.

Opodo cheap flights, hotels and car hire - let the journey begin!