Out of the box, thinking is something that I would credit Vistara will all around. It is like it is in their DNA to go against the established grain and work on new stuff to woo the passengers and make the passenger experience better. They’ve displayed it enough number of times.

• Introduce Vistara Premium Economy on day 1
• Introduce disposable meal boxes 
• Introduce a lounge for the customers
• Redo the #paxex on new A320neo planes

Vistara’s newest passenger experience improvement is one more to that list. Meet RADA, their new robot.

Vistara has developed RADA as an Artifical-Intelligence powered robot, that promises to assist customers, address their queries and entertain them. As per the airline, the robot aims to offer a seamless experience and an ‘intuitively thoughtful’ on-ground service to its customers, keeping with the changing consumer behaviour.

During its initial days, you can meet RADA at Vistara’s Signature Lounge at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 from July 5, 2018, where he/she/it will be able to assist customers using the lounge before they board their flights.

At present, the robot can scan boarding passes and further provide information on the terminal, departure gates, weather conditions of the destination city, real-time flight status as well as information about Vistara’s products and services. It greets customers and interacts with them using basic hand movements, and is capable of moving around in the lounge on predefined pathways. Additionally, it can engage with kids and adults alike by playing games and other multimedia content such as songs and videos.

RADA is not the only one, however, but the first in India for sure. Lufthansa, KLM and so many other airlines are already testing robots to take over customer service functions. Robots, after all, make a great talking point, attract attention, get the work done, and don’t get tired.

Vistara says that ‘RADA’ will be further developed over a period of time in terms of functionality and features for future use cases, after gauging customer feedback.

But why name it RADA? Well, it just helps that RADA is named after Radha, the daughter of one of the members of Vistara’s IT team, who was engaged in this project. That makes RADA a she.

Are you excited to meet RADA? I sure hope you’ll meet her in the coming days at Delhi Airport!