European Airlines to Allow Use of Cell Phones Aboard

A new technology, expected to be rolled out by late next year, will soon allow European air passengers to use their cell phones. This announcement was made early this week by Geneva-based technology firm OnAir.

British carrier bmi (formerly British Midlands Airways) and Portugal´s state-owned TAP Air Portugal are to try OnAir voice and text service for cell phones in separate three-month trials, according to OnAir chief executive George Cooper.

“During that three months, we´ll all be evaluating how it´s going, what the usage is, how we handle the crew issues and so on,” he said speaking to the Associated Press in Germany. With both airlines, initially there will be a couple of airplanes- two or three airplanes- equipped with this system,” Mr. Cooper said.

TAP is to equip its Airbus 321 and bmi its Airbus 320 for flights within western Europe.

At the present time, cell phones are prohibited in commercial aircraft over concerns that they may interfere with a plane´s navigation system. OnAir addresses this concern by utilizing a system that is based within the plane ensuring that mobile devices will operate at a lower transmission power, which avoids interference or avionics.

OnAir is a joint venture between Societe Internationale Information de Telecommunications Aeronautiques/Information Networking Computing (SITA) and Airbus.