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-   -   Air India becomes first desi airline to roll out in-flight Wi-Fi service (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/289438-air-india-becomes-first-desi-airline-roll-out-flight-wi-fi-service.html)

Air India has rolled out in-flight Wi-Fi from January 1, 2025, becoming the first Indian carrier to offer Wi-Fi connectivity onboard domestic flights.



Passengers can now access Wi-Fi services aboard Air India’s Airbus A321 Neo, A350 and Boeing 787-9 aircraft on both domestic and international routes. Initially, the service will be complimentary and will be extended to additional aircraft in the future.

Earlier, Air India conducted successful trials of the Wi-Fi service on international routes to New York, London, Paris and Singapore.

The in-flight Wi-Fi will offer connectivity when flying above 10,000 feet. It supports multiple Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously, including smartphones, tablets and laptops.

To access the internet, passengers can select the ‘Air India Wi-Fi’ network and enter their PNR and surname on the Air India portal.

Source: TOI

Link to Team-BHP News

Hello instagram videos on loudspeaker. Bye bye in-flight peace and tranquility.

I think Vistara was the first Indian Airline to introduce this. I had 20 mins free Wi-fi on my Vistara flight from CDG-BLR.

International sectors to/from India were allowed to have connectivity since ages. I remember a Japan Airlines flight some 9 years ago who had this.

Domestic only flights were not allowed till today.

It is a very good step by Air India. In my opinion, all flights and trains should offer wi-fi service for their passengers. Surfing the net has become a hobby for majority of the people be it a child, adults, senior citizens or old persons, all of them enjoy surfing the net.

If implemented correctly, airlines can control what content can be accessed with their in-flight WiFi.

When I flew with Emirates in 2023, they allowed only website surfing and WhatsApp text messages as a complimentary offering.

Instagram and even the audio/video on WhatsApp and other websites wasn’t allowed. Of course, passengers could buy one of the paid packages if they needed to use the multimedia.

Overall, I’d say it’s a good step by Air India. Even a 2-hour flight feels long if there’s nothing much to do. I can use the time to read many threads on TBHP. :D

In my recent flight on Singapore Airlines, my multimedia screen conked off. Thanks to inflight Wifi, I was able to keep myself occupied on Whatsapp and Instagram.

Good move from Air India and hopefully rest follow soon.

All due respect to everyone. But there should be a compulsory rider that videos and reels should be played only via headphones.
Just imagine. Flying at 30000 feet, out of 180 odd passengers in a domestic A321, if only 10 people start playing music on phone, and couple of kids start blabbering jingles & nursery rhymes mid air.
You have no where to go. Adults you can make understand. But a toddler glued to a phone screen with all jingles at full volume.a perfect recipe for a headache for next couple of days.
It should be complementary only for 15-20 mins. Not more than that. After that it needs to be priced at a seriously high price.

I have a contrarian view to this. I think an airplane journey is a good time to disconnect- one may use offline apps like Kindle etc, but is it really necessary to be online all the time.

I have used it twice only, once on Qatar airways and once on Emirates when I got the complimentary offer with certain mb's to be consumed. Complimentary/free is the key word. The data lasted around 15-20 mins of the flight, WhatsApp and few browsing consumed all of that. After that it was pay service, which I would never take, unless I'm going to crash in next few hours, to bid "good bye" to all my closed ones or a last selfie or last live feed lol:

I do beforehand download some flicks on Netflix which keeps me company during the flights and are good enough to keep me away from being online.

I for one can do without WiFi on all my flights. Whether it’s short or long haul. I used to do about 40-50 return trips per year when I was still working. Never felt the need to use the WiFi then. Neither for the Internet or calling.

Nowadays I don’t either. Being on a plane is time to relax. I always bring books and magazines. Proper paper ones too. None of those crap digital ones. And I enjoy watching an inflight movie.

I have been travelling with my Bose noise cancelling headphones set. That’s as far as I will take it, electronically, or my own iPad with lots of TV series on it.

Flying as a passenger, no matter whether you travel first class or economy, it’s still a bit like cattle being moved.

I prefer to stay in my own little bubble of comfort, rather than being online.

Jeroen

Being on an airliner is like being freed from the prison of the blue screen and out on parole for a breath of cyber freedom or rather freedom from cyber. Wi-Fi on an airliner sounds like a horrible, horrible idea.

I can't wait to be inflicted with half a dozen of my countrymen {and women} talking loudly over their mobile phones quite possibly closing some matter of national importance. If Wi-Fi means yakking on the phone looks like Air India will be a carrier to avoid.

I'm all for internet on flights and am so glad to finally see it happening. Am usually in "work mode", just to make flights productive (because flying cattle-class on domestic routes is anyway such a painful experience).

Am sure the airlines will figure out how to block Instagram reels and phone calls. Remember, international routes already offer it, and I don't remember any disturbances. Plus, YouTube, Netflix & other streaming platforms have "smart downloads". People are watching videos even today on flights.

There is no better way to make a long flight shorter, than Team-BHP / Instagram / Work.

On a lighter note, Air India should be smart enough to block social media/streaming video to not have live broadcast of their infamous aircrafts and in-flight service. :)

We(as a people) unfortunately lack the etiquette. People don't watch reels or make calls on flights currently because it's not accessible, not because they think it might bother others.