Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Michael O’Leary says passengers don’t find much peace on Ryanair Holdings Plc flights as crews sell scratchcards, sandwiches and cigarettes. His planes are about to get louder as the carrier introduces a mobile-phone service.

“There’s no more private space,” said Joe Smith, a 20- year-old student and waiter traveling to Dublin from London Gatwick airport today on one of the first flights enabled for calls. “All you’re going to get is people saying ‘Hello, I’m on the plane.’ I just don’t want to be sitting next to someone talking on the phone all the time.”

Passengers can call, e-mail and send text messages from 20 planes, expanding to 50 aircraft in the next six months and the Dublin-based carrier’s entire fleet if the service is popular.

O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive officer who charges passengers to check in hold baggage or be first to board, predicts “enormous demand” for in-flight calls.

“Nobody is flying on Ryanair because it is a bastion of solitude where you can contemplate life,” said O’Leary, who arrived at a press conference in Dublin wearing a mobile-phone outfit covered with a “Now Use Your Mobile on Board” sign.

Ryanair wants the OnAir NV service to boost so-called ancillary revenue, the money the airline generates aside from ticket sales. That accounted for more than a fifth of revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 31, rising 19 percent to 132 million euros ($167 million).

Roaming Rates

Passengers will make and receive voice calls at non-European Union international roaming rates of 2 euros to 3 euros a minute. Text messages will cost about 50 cents and e-mails using phones and other devices will cost as much as 2 euros a message.

“It is expensive but it’s your choice whether you want to use it or not,” O’Leary said.

Passengers are still asked not to use their mobile phones during takeoff and landing, and when the plane reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet signs in the cabin switch from red to green to indicate that the service is operating.

O’Leary said Ryanair is the first all-economy carrier to let travelers make calls. Air France-KLM Group tested a phone service on one plane last April in Europe’s first trial of airborne mobile-phone voice service. New York-based JetBlue Airways Corp. agreed to buy Verizon Communications Inc.’s Airfone business in June to expand its e-mail and messaging services aboard planes, but U.S. regulations don’t permit voice calls.

In-flight calls are connected via a miniature cellular network inside the aircraft. A modem transmits data and calls to a satellite that routes them to a ground station and then onward to the passenger’s network, which can cause some delays.

Lorna Mallick, 13, a schoolgirl traveling to Dublin with her mother, called her father “just because I could” and said in the future she would be more likely to text.

Take a Break

Passenger Kathy Lee from Colchester, England, traveling to Las Vegas with Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., is against phones on board.

“It’s a nice thing to be able to have a break from your phone,” Lee said as she waited to board a plane at Gatwick. “I find it very annoying if you’re on the train and someone next to you is using a mobile phone.”

O’Leary, who says airports estimate about 60 percent to 70 percent of Ryanair’s customers may be traveling for leisure, doesn’t expect the service to put other travelers off.

“We’ve no interest in quiet zones,” the CEO told journalists. “It will make a break from the in-flight announcements on a Ryanair aircraft.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Rothwell in London at srothwell@bloomberg.net; Louisa Nesbitt at lnesbitt@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 19, 2009 16:12 EST