No more ban on devices throughout flight

Paris - The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) allowed European airlines to let passengers use electronic devices including mobile phones throughout the flight, as it further relaxed safety rules.

Airlines will first need to complete a safety assessment process to make sure aircraft systems are not in any way affected by transmission signals from the devices, which include phones, tablets and laptops, the EASA said.

After this assessment process is completed, passengers will be able to use their devices throughout their trip, even during take-off and landing, without putting them in "flight mode".

Long banned during taxiing, take-off and landing for safety reasons, the use of these devices was given the go-ahead in Europe and the United States last year, provided the "airplane mode" was switched on.

This mode disables cellular service, so passengers were not able to make phone calls.