PASSENGERS may be allowed to make calls from mobile phones on commercial flights as a result of technology being developed by one of the biggest aircraft manufacturers.

The service could be available within two years and will initially be aimed at customers on short-haul flights in Europe.

Passengers will be able to make calls from their seats and will be billed via their existing service providers at international roaming rates. The technology will also allow people to use laptops and personal digital assistants in flight.

The move could transform commercial flying, one of the last places that remains free from incessant mobile phone chatter.

Mobile phone use is banned on board flights because the devices have been found to affect aircraft navigation and communication systems, producing errors on instrument displays and background noise on audio communications.

At the moment, passengers can use satellite phones on some planes, but these tend to be prohibitively expensive.

At the Farnborough air show last week, Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, announced the creation of a joint venture with Sita and Tenzing, two airline communications specialists, for the mobile phone project.

Boeing, the American rival to Airbus, has already made it possible for passengers to use broadband internet and e-mail while flying. The service, which was tested by British Airways last year, was launched in the spring by Lufthansa.

The Airbus joint venture believes advances in technology will allow mobiles to be used in the air from spring 2006.

The company plans to develop a shoebox-sized receiver that will function on board an aircraft like a mobile phone mast on the ground, sending and receiving calls from mobile users and relaying them into the ground-based telecommunications network. It overcomes the problem of how to receive a mobile phone signal at altitude.

Other advances will weaken phones’ signals to prevent interference with aircraft systems.

While train companies are able to provide “quiet coaches”, introducing mobile-free zones to an aircraft would pose greater logistical difficulties.

“It’s certainly not what you’d want when you’re trying to sleep on an eight-hour transatlantic flight,” said a BA spokesman. “There are some concerns, but we could see some benefits, particularly on something like a short-haul flight to Brussels.”

The Civil Aviation Authority, which enforces the existing mobile phone ban, was unavailable for comment.

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