Come June, Air India Will Be First To Offer Free Wi-Fi On Their Flights

Riding this unabating wave of technology comes Air India, an unlikely suitor — with their initiative to offer Wi-Fi to all their patrons, on their flights. A first for Indian (domestic) airlines, Air India chief Ashwani Lohani told TOI, “We are working on having Wi-Fi on our planes. We have issued expression of interest and will take the aircraft manufacturer’s nod to install Wi-Fi equipment. Though giving an exact date is difficult, we are aiming to start this by June or July.”

The Wi-Fi will likely be free, and will be a feature available on the Airbus A-320 planes, one of Air India’s main domestic flight carriers. They will probably follow what other international airlines who provide the same services are doing, i.e. starting with an initial internet pack for free, and once that quota is exhausted, customers can avail of a paid data pack. As of now, Air India has released no specifications regarding their data or speed quota.

However, considering the Indian Government is still hesitant on making in-flight Wi-Fi a reality, the actual implementation of this idea may take longer. In fact, Indian laws on this are so strict, international flights have to keep their own internet services off, when they fly over the Indian airspace, unless they are using a local server. Hopefully, once these laws are relaxed, several more Indian airlines will take on this initiative.