European aero-producer Airbus has reported progress on plans that would allow passengers to use mobile phones during air travel, beginning in 2006.

The Toulouse, France-based company recently ran tests that demonstrated mobile phones can be used without interfering with navigation systems aboard an Airbus A320 plane, it said.

Airline passengers are typically required to disable or power down all mobile electronic devices during the course of a flight as not to cross frequencies with a plane's vital course-plotting tools.

Mobile phones onboard were used to send and receive calls and texts using mobile and fixed telephones on the ground and other mobiles onboard, Airbus said in a statement. The mobile phone trial involved using a small onboard base station, or 'picocell,' and routing calls via the Globalstar satellite communications network to the ground and terrestrial telephone networks.

'The tests are a major milestone in the offering by Airbus of personal mobile telephones aboard commercial aircraft from 2006,' it said.

Airbus said personal digital assistances (PDAs) and other wireless devices were tested in a separate trial.

Airbus has partnered with U.S. firms SITA Inc. and Tenzing Communications Inc. in July plans to form a new company aimed at helping airlines deploy passenger mobile technology.

The companies said the aim was to allow passengers to use mobiles, laptops and PDAs on planes and to be billed through their own phone or Internet service provider.