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The US is relaxing its rules to allow air passengers to listen to music, play video games and watch films on their phones and tablets during takeoffs and landings.

The change allowing the use of electronic devices from gate-to-gate will not, however, extend to making mobile phone calls during flights.

Connections to the internet to surf, exchange emails, text or download data will also still be banned below 10,000 feet and heavier devices like laptops will have to be stowed.

Passengers will be told to switch their smartphones, tablets and other devices to airplane mode.

The US Federal Aviation Authority confirmed the move last night, although it will be up to individual airlines to decide how soon to meet the new criteria.

The change will mean that on transatlantic flights British passengers will be able to use their gadgets as they land on American soil. However, when they take off from Britain they will not be able to do so.

Under rules drawn up by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority, electronic devices cannot be used during taxi, takeoff and landing on all fights entering or leaving British airspace.

However the rules could also change in Britain and across the world if the American research is shown to be credible.

An American travel industry group welcomed the changes yesterday, calling them common-sense accommodations for a traveling public now bristling with technology.

‘We’re pleased the FAA recognizes that an enjoyable passenger experience is not incompatible with safety and security,” said Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

Air safety officials backed the changes after agreeing that the electronic gadgets do not interfere with navigation systems and that data used to draw up the ban - typically imposed in aircraft across the world - was from back in the 1960s when such devices were very different.

Phones are excluded in the rule change because they were not involved in the FAA research, although safety officials are now expected to look at this issue separately.

The original rules in the US were written in 1966 when it was thought that electromagnetic interference from computers and other devices could cause problems with navigation systems on board the plane.

Nowadays passenger jets are ‘much more tolerant’ to such interference and the gadgets themselves are much safer.

The report says that this is because they use less power, transmit weaker signals and ‘stay within a tighter range of frequencies’.

One key factor behind the US decision has been the sheer number of air passengers ignoring the rules. One survey found that, by accident or on purpose, one third of passengers had left their gadgets on when they should be turned off.

The CAA in the UK is said to be ‘monitoring’ the situation.