Passengers are now able to make calls using their mobile phones on commercial flights for the first time. Emirates has announced that it allowed calls on a flight between Dubai and Casablanca after aviation authorities granted approval for the use of personal mobiles in-flight.

Air France has previously conducted trials of a similar service but this is the first fully operational service.

Emirates says the technology, built by a firm called AeroMobile, allows voice calls and text messages once the aircraft has reached cruising altitude.

The airline has issued guidelines to passengers about mobile use, including requesting passengers to have their phones switched to “silent” mode during the flight.

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BACKGROUND

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The carrier says it will extend the service to the rest of its fleet and add BlackBerry and other data services later this year.

AeroMobile chief executive Bjorn-Taale Sandberg said: "We believe that the ability to communicate efficiently, easily and safely when on board flights will become an every-day feature of business and leisure travel very quickly.

“We have gone to considerable lengths to ensure that all safety and regulatory issues have been fully addressed, so we are pleased that Emirates has been able to join us in being first past the post in offering a full voice call service.”

Today also saw Qantas announce that it would let passengers send and receive email and text message from their mobile phones and personal electronic devices from later this year on domestic services.

Qantas executive general manager, John Borghetti, said “An overwhelming majority of passengers involved in the evaluation indicated they wanted access to in-flight connectivity on an ongoing basis.

However, the airline said it would not allow passengers to make voice calls.