British Airways flights across Europe could have wifi on board from June - with passengers able to check emails, tweet and upload selfies from the cabin.

The airline's parent company IAG, which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, is introducing new high speed wifi on board selected aircraft this June before rolling it out across 90 per cent of its short haul fleet by 2019.

While on-board wifi is common on long haul flights, and is already offered by carriers including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, it is rare in Europe because the the dense airspace makes connection to satellites patchy.

IAG is the launch customer of the European Aviation Network, a new system that allows airplane antenna to connect to a system of 300 ground towers across Europe as well as satellites.

The system, developed by Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom, requires far lighter on-board equipment than before.

Previously, an Inmarsat spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph, the weight of equipment had not been fuel efficient for short-haul aircraft, which are often smaller.

"We will see airlines able to offer reliable, high-speed and future-proof in flight broadband access across Europe’s high-traffic flight paths," the spokesperson added.