For about a decade now, in-flight entertainment has been taking a new shape. Airlines have been moving away from full-fledged seatback IFE, which involves fitting screens and IFE boxes on an aircraft, to small units that stream entertainment. You can consume the content using your laptops, tablets, or phones.

After Jet Airways and Vistara joined this bandwagon in 2018, we exclusively reported about the imminent launch of in-flight streaming wifi on Air India, with the use of technology from Bluebox Aviation.

Air India rolls out streaming IFE solutions on select aircraft.

On the event of India’s Independence Day, Air India introduced their streaming IFE solution on select aircraft. They are using the same vendor, Bluebox Aviation, which Vistara uses. Bluebox Aviation is one of the prominent players in streaming IFE solutions and has partnered with Vistara for many years. Vistara trialled streaming IFE in 2015, and in 2018, the solution was fully rolled out. Vistara customers on the A320neo fleet can access the IFE with their personal electronic devices (PEDs). There is seatback IFE on the A321neo and B787-9s.

While the complete rollout plan is unknown, Air India has switched on the wireless IFE on at least one of their 787-8 aircraft, registered VT-ANN. The new literature announcing the service was also placed in the aircraft. As you can see, the name of the inflight wifi entertainment experience (streaming version) is Vista.

The selection of Bluebox WOW makes sense, given that it is already fitted out on Vistara aircraft, so reliability data is available. Additionally, it will be cost-saving not to replace the hardware on these Vistara-inherited equipment. Whether or not a trial will be conducted remains to be seen. For instance, IndiGo is conducting a trial on board some aircraft for its prospective IFE solution.

Bottomline

Air India has introduced its inflight streaming product, Vista, on select aircraft as of August 15, 2024. The airline will install it on its fleet of A320s, Boeing 787s, and Boeing 777s in the coming months. This would be at par with the VistaraWorld streaming IFE option, which is already on board Vistara aircraft.

What do you think of the move from Air India to bring IFE on their aircraft? Have you tried the new experience? What has been your experience?

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