Low-cost airline Ryanair has decided to allow passengers to use their mobile phones on flights.

Once a plane has reached cruising altitude, staff will allow people to use their phones, but they will have to be switched off during and after take off and landing. The carrier has already equipped 10 of its aircraft with the technology to make this possible, and eventually plans to spread this to 50 of its fleet.

Call charges will be about the same as those imposed for international roaming by mobile phone companies, and Ryanair expects that most of the calls will be texts. The company also wants to make a bit of spare cash selling mobile phone top-ups on flights.

In the past there were fears that the strength of the signal needed for the phone to connect with a mobile mast on the ground meant that it could interfere with a plane's communications system. However sticking a small mast on the aircraft means that the phone signal does not have to be so powerful. X