Although cellphones being allowed on planes seems a good idea in principle, in actuality I suspect it will just make you feel like not only are you sharing a sardine tin with a load of strangers, but any of their friends and family they wish to call, too.  However you can’t stand in the way of progress, and Emirates has become the first commercial airline to permit mobile calls during flights; it relies on a system developed by AeroMobile that prevents cellphone signals interfering with the planes’ electronics.  Thankfully the Dubai-based airline has set out a couple of ground-rules to prevent fellow passengers going mad: the crew will be able to block calls during, say, night flights, although SMS messages should still be permitted, and handsets will have to kept on silent.  

The launch comes as Quantas announced a similar system would be fitted to its fleet later this year, following a successful 10 month trial of the service that ended in January. 

“The evaluation of this new technology was a great success.  An overwhelming majority of passengers involved in the evaluation indicated they wanted access to in-flight connectivity on an ongoing basis” John Borghetti, Executive General Manager, Quantas

However, unlike the Emirates system, Quantas will only allow data and SMS messaging rather than voice calls.  Emirates so far does not have data services as part of its offering.