Australia relaxes rules on devices

Passengers on Qantas and Virgin Australia are now allowed to use mobile electronic devices during their entire flights, after the country's aviation authority relaxed the rules effective Tuesday.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority move, which followed similar decisions by the US and European Union last year, now allows passengers to have their devices on "flight mode" or "airplane mode" during taxiing, takeoff and landing. Previously, passengers had to have their devices switched off at those times.

Flight mode disables a device's cellular service so passengers will not be able to make calls or send texts, but it allows the use of other functions that don't require a signal transmission.

"The results of (work done in the United States and Europe) were released late last year and earlier this year, and it basically concluded that modern aircraft are not at risk of interference from modern mobile phones, tablets, e-readers and so forth," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said.

"Once you have assessed that there are no safety issues, there's no reason to put people through that inconvenience... of having to turn their devices off and turn it back on again."

Previous regulations banned the use of any electronics during taxiing, takeoff and landing due to fears they could interfere with an airplane's navigation equipment.

The changes took effect for Qantas' and Virgin Australia's domestic and international flights.

Qantas said it had "conducted rigorous testing to assess the impacts of electronic devices on the safe operation of aircraft".

"We are confident that these devices are safe to be turned on, but in flight mode, for the duration of each flight," it said

Virgin welcomed the decision, noting that a "significant proportion" of its customers travel with at least one smart-phone or tablet.

Other Australian-based air-lines, Jetstar and Tigerair, have not yet applied to operate under the new guidelines, Gib-son said.

He added that he "would be surprised" if more airlines were not permitted to use mobile devices in all phases of flight in the future.

"Certainly we can say all the next-generation aircraft-the ones made in the last 10 or 15 years-won't have a problem," said Gibson, adding that it was only older aircraft where interference concerns remained.

(China Daily 08/27/2014 page11)