The person you are calling is unavailable...because they are on a Ryanair flight

Ryanair, the first UK airline to allow passengers to make mobile phone calls in-flight, has temporarily discontinued the service, ridding its cabins of the sound of ring tones once again.

While the airline insists it will offer passengers the chance to make mid-air phone calls at some time in the future, the service is on hold for the time being.

Ryanair launched in-flight phone calls on selected aircraft in February last year and it had planned to roll out the service across its entire fleet by the end of this year. It was already installed on 50 of the airline's planes.

But this week Ryanair confirmed that it was no longer able to allow any passengers to make calls following a decision by calls provider OnAir to pull out of its contract with Ryanair.

In a statement the airline said Onair had been 'unwilling to commit to this expansion at this time, and exercised their right to terminate the agreement at the end of the 13 month proving period of service operation'.

Ryanair is inviting other inflight communication providers to tender for the business, after claiming that it had been pleased with the performance of the OnAir service.

The airline said it had seen a growth in the volume of calls and text messages being sent in-flight, in spite of the sky-high charges.

OnAir said it was about to announce new agreements with other airlines for both short-haul and long-haul flights. It is already providing mobile phone services on six other airlines.

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