Exactly a year since Air India introduced new branding, new colours, new livery, logo and image- the passengers set high standards for the airline.

However, the airline took a beating on the in-flight entertainment (IFE) front. Passengers often complained about broken screens, no-audio, no variety in entertainment content etc. The airline had to do something and fast not just to woo its passengers but also to retain them when competitors like IndiGo and Akasa were fast setting high-standards for IFE.

Most of the global airlines have long-since moved from full seatback IFE to smaller, more compact units which passengers can connect on their personal devices. As a matter of fact, Air India’s sister airline – Vistara has been flying on a flawless IFE system for years. Now, Air India too is following Vistara’s footsteps to introduce world-class IFE on its select flights with Bluebox aviation. 

Vistara rolled-out Bluebox IFE on its A320neo fleet. One of the best features of this IFE is that passengers can access the IFE with their personal electronic devices (PEDs).

Air India too has introduced the same IFE solution on its Boeing 787 fleet calling the new inflight Wi-Fi entertainment experience as Vista. The airline is further planning to expand this IFE solution to its A320s and B777 fleet in coming months. 

Opting in for the same IFE provider that is already onboard Vistara fleet also makes sense from the merger front as Vistara will soon completely merge with Air India, while the Vistara brand will be dissolved. 

How to use the new Vista inflight entertainment:

  • Passengers need to switch on WiFi on their personal devices
  • Airplane mode should be ON
  • The airline then provides a url to connect to the internet. 

Bluebox’s portable wireless streaming platform provides content streamed to passenger devices in any aircraft cabin, providing the capability of storing up to 1.6 Terabytes of film, TV, audio, games and other digital content. With a remarkably low cost of ownership, it is a discrete, portable, lunchbox-sized unit.

Stowed securely in overhead bins, each box’s single, swappable rechargeable battery delivers up to 15 hours of simultaneously streamed video content.