Air India has ended the complimentary introductory period for its inflight Wi-Fi service, introducing a structured paid pricing model across its Wi-Fi-enabled fleet. While the airline is continuing to offer complimentary access to some premium cabin passengers and Maharaja Club elite members, most Economy passengers will now need to purchase an onboard internet package if they wish to remain connected during their flight.
The move comes about 19 months after Air India became the first Indian airline to introduce inflight Wi-Fi on domestic flights. When the service launched on January 1, 2025, Air India had made internet access complimentary as part of an introductory offer on its Airbus A350-900s, Boeing 787-9s and select Airbus A321neo aircraft. That introductory period has now concluded, and the airline has rolled out a tiered pricing structure similar to what many global full-service airlines already offer.
Air India introduces three paid Wi-Fi options
Passengers can now choose between different connectivity packages depending on how they intend to use the internet during the flight. The entry-level Chat & Text Plan is priced at INR 399 for the full flight. As the name suggests, it is designed for passengers who only want access to messaging applications such as WhatsApp or similar chat services. Those who need more functionality can opt for the Basic Browsing Plan, which enables email, web browsing, social media and cloud-based work applications. This package is available in three durations:
- 1 hour: INR 299
- 3 hours: INR 699
- Full flight: INR 1,199
Passengers looking to stream video or access bandwidth-intensive services will need the Streaming Plan, priced at INR 2,699 for the duration of the flight and offering unrestricted access to streaming services.
The pricing broadly mirrors how several international airlines segment onboard connectivity today, with low-cost messaging plans, mid-tier productivity packages and premium streaming access. While Economy passengers will now largely pay for connectivity, Air India has retained complimentary unlimited Wi-Fi as a premium cabin benefit, all the way up to the Streaming Plan.
Business Class passengers will receive:
- One hour of complimentary browsing
- Complimentary chat access throughout the flight
This effectively allows Business Class travellers to remain connected for messaging during the entire journey while getting enough browsing time to catch up on emails or work before deciding whether to purchase additional connectivity.
Maharaja Club members receive tier-based Wi-Fi benefits
Air India has also integrated inflight Wi-Fi into its loyalty programme, making connectivity another elite benefit. Passengers will need to ensure that their Maharaja Club number is linked to the booking through Manage Booking or Web Check-in before departure.
The benefits are structured as follows:
- Red Tier
- Complimentary one-hour chat access
- Silver Tier
- Complimentary one-hour chat access
- Gold Tier
- Complimentary one-hour browsing plus unrestricted chat access
- Platinum Tier
- Complimentary unrestricted browsing, chat and streaming throughout the flight.
This is a notable addition to the loyalty programme, particularly for frequent flyers who may otherwise have had to purchase Wi-Fi separately. The paid service is currently available only on aircraft fitted with inflight connectivity equipment (obviously). These include:
- Airbus A350-900
- Select Boeing 777-300ER aircraft (the ex-Etihad ones)
- Boeing 787-9 (the Vistara fleet)
- Airbus A321neo aircraft (the Vistara fleet)
How passengers can purchase Wi-Fi onboard
Buying Wi-Fi is straightforward once the aircraft reaches cruising altitude. Passengers need to:
- Enable Airplane Mode.
- Connect to the Air India Wi-Fi network.
- Open their browser (or visit wifi.airindia.com if the captive portal does not automatically appear).
- Authenticate using your last name, PNR (or last four digits of the ticket number), email address and phone number.
- Select the desired plan.
- Complete payment.
Complimentary Maharaja Club access is available on only one device at a time and cannot be transferred once activated.
Air India currently accepts:
- UPI payments from supported mobile devices.
- International credit and debit cards that do not require OTP authentication.
The airline specifically notes that OTP-based card authentication cannot be completed while airborne, making international cards or UPI the preferred payment methods. One important detail is that every Wi-Fi purchase is valid only for a single flight segment. Passengers travelling on connecting itineraries or flights involving stopovers will need to purchase a separate package for each sector.
They should quickly take the Vistara methods on, and give 10-15 minutes of free Wi-Fi so that a commercial transaction can be done with Indian Credit Cards and retrieve the OTP by email.
Air India says demand for Wi-Fi continues to grow
The introduction of paid plans comes only weeks after Air India revealed that more than one million passengers had used its inflight Wi-Fi service between June 2025 and June 2026. According to the airline, usage has risen significantly over the past year, with passenger adoption increasing from approximately 30% of eligible travellers to 55%. The airline currently offers Wi-Fi across more than 55 daily flights operated by 28 equipped aircraft, suggesting that connectivity has become an increasingly important part of the onboard experience.
What Air India could have done better, perhaps, would have been to link the Chat plan to all members of the loyalty programme and grant it to them free of cost, which is the ongoing trend around the industry, as airlines move to StarLink or Amazon connectivity.
Bottomline
Air India has now transitioned from offering complimentary promotional Wi-Fi to a mature, revenue-generating inflight connectivity model. The pricing is broadly in line with international industry practices, while premium cabin passengers and higher-tier Maharaja Club members continue to receive meaningful complimentary benefits.
For occasional users, the INR 399 messaging package should be sufficient to remain reachable during the flight. However, passengers planning to work onboard may gravitate towards the browsing plans, while the INR 2,699 streaming package is clearly aimed at long-haul travellers who want unrestricted internet access throughout the journey.
The bigger takeaway is that inflight connectivity at Air India has moved from being a promotional feature to becoming another ancillary product—albeit one that also serves as a loyalty benefit for the airline’s most valuable customers. What do you think of this transition?
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