Up until last month, airlines weren’t allowed to operate inflight entertainment (IFE) devices when flying in the Indian skies, due to security concerns. India didn’t have the necessary technology used to monitor such data transmission, but this has been resolved now.
JetAirways has been awaiting a green signal from the Civil Aviation of India to launch the service since the second quarter of this year. With approvals in place, Jet Airways has already made IFE available to passengers on select routes served by its B737.
The airline says, “JetScreen has been installed in seven Boeing 737 next generation aircraft in the Jet Airways fleet, operating on key domestic routes, and on international flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Dammam, Doha, Muscat, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Singapore, Bangkok, Dhaka and Kathmandu. Wireless streaming enabled aircraft will also operate on certain domestic flights between Delhi and Pune, Pune and Bangalore. This also includes services between major metros to Chennai, Nagpur, and Baroda, to name a few.”
It will systematically, in a phased manner, extend the service to the entire Jet Airways Boeing 737 fleet in the coming months.
Passengers can connect to the on-board IFE device to stream 220 hours of video and audio content such as Hollywood and Indian movies, television episodes, music, interactive games, 3D flight tracker, and access a wide range of destination-related information, directly on their mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
The content can be accessed through a free app — Airtime Player — available in App Store and in Google Play, amongst others. Once installed, switching on the airplane mode and logging on to ‘JetScreen’, the wireless network on-board will launch a browser that works as a portal to the IFE content.
Gaurang Shetty, whole-time director at Jet Airways, says, “Inflight entertainment is a key element of Jet Airways’ full-service experience. Our selection of the best entertainment content across genres is aimed at enriching the inflight experience of our guests. Streaming of content on personal devices has become extremely popular globally, and we are confident that this initiative, will appeal to all our guests especially the millennials who prefer to access content on the move.”
