Air India launches Wi-Fi Connectivity on board A350 and 787-9 aircraft

Vistara, in 2020, became the only Indian carrier to offer wifi connectivity on their aircraft, with their Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A321neo aircraft coming factory-fitted with radomes. Air India became the second when they switched on Wi-Fi on their international operations on November 7, 2024. I’ve tried it out a couple of times now, and here is everything there is to know so far.

Air India ties up with Panasonic Avionics and Nelco to offer Wi-Fi on board.

Air India has tied up with Nelco (another firm belonging to the Tata Group) and Panasonic Avionics to provide in-flight connectivity for its flights. Air India has an A350 fleet with six aircraft, 7 Boeing 787-9 aircraft, which it inherited from Vistara and 10 A321neo aircraft. These are all the Air India aircraft currently equipped with in-flight connectivity radomes.

Air India has now activated in-flight connectivity on their A350 aircraft and transitioned their Vistara-branded aircraft to their connectivity. Since the connectivity providers were the same, it would have been easy to transition to a new gating mechanism to validate customers. For now, this connectivity is being offered free of cost, unlike Vistara (which used to provide it on a paid basis).

If you have this connectivity option on your airplane, the connectivity APN is called Air India Wi-Fi.

a screenshot of a phone You’ll see this page if your attempt to latch on is successful.

a screen shot of a phoneHowever, you still need to log in, and there are a couple of hoops to jump through. For instance, you need to select an option to connect. Air India will tell you that “The Internet” is available if you are in a zone where connectivity is available.

a screenshot of a phone

From there on, you go through a captcha code validation before being informed that you can connect to Wi-Fi, free of cost for now.

a screenshot of a computer

You need to validate your PNR and assigned seat before logging onto the network.

a screenshot of a screen

 

Performance of Air India’s new Vista Wi-Fi Service

Air India’s new Wi-Fi service is not bad in terms of speeds. Speedtest is usually not a great indicator due to the massive ping that onboard Wi-Fi involves, but here is how it looked on a flight between Delhi and Mumbai on board the A350.

a screenshot of a computer

It was much faster on board the Vistara Boeing 787-9 between London and Delhi last night. a screenshot of a computer

But here is the crazy thing. Video Streaming worked flawlessly on both days on this platform, and Air India has yet to block streaming. I hope it will not be a nuisance for co-travellers until it is shut down.

Customers of Air India love the new streaming facility so far.

And before you ask, Internet Voice Calls are working now. And they shouldn’t.

Bottomline

Air India has launched Wi-Fi on board their A350 aircraft and also migrated the Boeing 787-9s of Vistara to the new platform (with bandwidth from Panasonic Aero and gated by Nelco). The service is currently being offered free of charge to customers wh0 fly on board these aircraft.

What do you make of the new internet offerings from Air India?


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. It will work for a week at most, they can’t even get there in flight entertainment to work on the Dreamliners on the Gatwick Goa Gatwick both legs nothing worked. Read an article by Cameron Wilson CEO of Air India, boy he talks the talk but he can’t walk the walk

  2. Great! Took long time.

    But why shouldn’t Internet calls work though? I’ve had video calls on Qatar Airways and Wi-Fi based voice calls on Singapore Airlines (both on US leg though).

    • @U in principle video calls shouldn’t work anywhere in a public space. People are uncharitable with making other people suffer through the whole thing.

      • Oh! That makes sense. I thought that you meant that video calls and voice calls were somehow were working based on a tech loophole rather than etiquettes. My apologies.

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