Air France-KLM has started trials for inflight cellular service on its Air France A318, operating on short-haul routes in Europe.

Initially, passengers onboard will be able to send and receive text and picture messages, and emails via mobile phones with internet access. The next stage of the trial will allow passengers to make and receive phone calls.

The Air France trial is using a system developed by OnAir, a joint venture between Sita and Airbus. Air France is the first to the mobile telephony system on international flights.

Qantas, a rival to OnAir which is developed by AeroMobile, a joint venture between Arinc and Telenor has been testing its telephony system for months in the Australian domestic market.

Using OnAir, the passengers' mobile phones connects to the cellular network which is installed inside the aircraft. All data and voice calls are then transmitted to a satellite, which routes them to a ground station and then to a normal telephone network.

Other Airlines such as JetBlue Airways Corp and Virgin America are turning to air-to-ground connections to avoid expensive satellite fee that incurs using system such as OnAir.

JetBlue's LiveTV subsidiary paid $7 million for a 1-megahertz frequency band that allows JetBlue aircraft to communicate with around 100 cell towers spread across the United States offering free e-mail and instant-messaging services on laptops and mobile devices through Yahoo and BlackBerry.