First commercial in-flight voice calls made with Emirates

An AeroMobile system has been successfully deployed on an aircraft operated by Emirates Airline, enabling passengers to make mobile phone calls on a commercial flight for the first time ever.
Passengers travelling on Emirates flight EK751 from Dubai to Casablanca were able to make in-flight voice calls and use text messaging services thanks to equipment provided by AeroMobile.
Full approval for the AeroMobile system to be used on Emirates was previously granted by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the United Arab Emirates-based General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

The airline has also introduced guidelines for the appropriate use of phones on board, asking that passengers switch their phones to 'silent' mode during the flights.

The AeroMobile system becomes operational as soon as the Airbus A340-300 reaches cruise altitude. A text message is then sent to travelers wanting to use the service when they first switch-on their phones.

The airline said that it has already installed the AeroMobile system on a second aircraft, a Boeing 777-300.

Published in Airline Industry Information on Thursday, 20 March 2008 at 16:42 GMT
Copyright (C) 2008, M2 Communications Ltd.

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