Back in the day, in 2015, Vistara had launched Vistara World, a streaming IFE service which everyone could watch on their own device. For Business class customers, they’d get themselves a tablet from Vistara, while Economy and Premium Economy had to bring their own device. I managed to try out this service once, before Vistara quietly discontinued it.
In the meanwhile, Jet Airways committed fully to a wireless IFE screening (called JetScreen) and has been rolling it out consistently on all their aircraft. In fact, on the newer Boeing 737MAX aircraft they have now begun inducting, they also have USB charging available on all seats. Jet Airways offers about 300 hours of content on JetScreen.
Now Vistara has announced that they will be rolling out inflight streaming IFE on their aircraft this month onwards. Vistara World, as the airline calls their IFE streaming service, will have 70 hours of audio and video content which can be streamed to personal handheld devices in-flight.
‘Vistara World’ will be rolled out fleet-wide in August 2018, subject to regulatory approvals. It will offer a content-rich multimedia library that includes music in genres like Pop, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Electronica, English Retro and Indian, Bollywood and Hollywood movies of various categories such as Drama, Romance, Comedy, Thriller, Action, Adventure, etc., Indian and International short programs as well as a variety of reading material including Vistara’s in-flight magazine.
Vistara had earlier been the launch customer for BAE’s IFE solution, but left it in trial stage itself. We don’t know what was the reason for not taking on the service fully. But this time around, the wireless IFE would be powered by a company called Blue Box Aviation, which provides IFE systems to a few airlines such as Carribean Airlines and others at the moment. Apps are already available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store under the name Vistara World.
Bottomline
I hope this time around Vistara may have found the perfect solution to their IFE streaming choices. Also, as they move closer to International flying, this choice was becoming more and more important, since they really would need that IFE on 4-5 hours of flying. What I hope the next round of planes come with however, is inbuilt USB chargers. Given IFE is a taxing affair on the batteries, and no one really likes to arrive in a new city without the ability to contact their driver or order their Uber.
What do you think of the (re)newed move from Vistara to bring IFE on their aircraft? Like it?
Leave a Reply