Exactly one year after Air India introduced a new brand, new colours, new livery, new logo and new image, passengers had high expectations of the airline.
However, the airline faced a setback in the area of in-flight entertainment (IFE), with passengers frequently complaining about broken screens, no sound, lack of variety in entertainment content, etc. The airline had to act quickly not only to woo its passengers but also to retain them, as competitors like IndiGo and Akasa were quickly setting high standards for IFE.
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Most airlines around the world have long since moved away from seat-back IFE systems to smaller, more compact units that passengers can plug in their personal devices. In fact, Air India's sister airline Vistara has been flying with a flawless IFE system for years. Now Air India is following Vistara's example and introducing a top-of-the-line IFE system on select flights with Bluebox Aviation.
Vistara has introduced Bluebox IFE on its A320neo fleet. One of the best features of this IFE is that passengers can access the IFE using their Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs).
Air India has also introduced the same IFE solution on its Boeing 787 fleet and calls the new in-flight Wi-Fi entertainment experience Vista. The airline plans to extend this IFE solution to its A320 and B777 fleet in the coming months.
The decision to use the same IFE provider that is already on board the Vistara fleet also makes sense from a merger perspective, as Vistara will soon fully merge with Air India while the Vistara brand will be dissolved.
How to use the new Vista in-flight entertainment system:
- Passengers must turn on Wi-Fi on their personal devices
- Airplane mode should be turned on
- The airline then provides a URL for connecting to the Internet.
Bluebox's portable wireless streaming platform enables content streaming to passenger devices in any aircraft cabin, with the ability to store up to 1.6 terabytes of movies, TV shows, audio files, games and other digital content. The discreet, portable, lunchbox-sized unit is remarkably cost-effective and also offers remarkably low running costs.
Each box's individual, replaceable battery is safely stored in the overhead compartments and enables playback of video content for 24 hours.
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