In-flight Wi-Fi OOH opportunities like to face turbulence initially

TRAI’s approval for in-flight mobile calls and net surfing opens up a new OOH advertising opportunity, viz., Wi-Fi portal advertising. This advertising concept holds the significant potential for brands to target and engage different categories of captive audience with tailored messages 35,000 ft above from the ground and 3,000 ft above in the Indian case. Internationally, the wi-fi airline advertising has taken off; however, the journey of this new format seems to be a little challenging in India.

Talking about the various hindrances, Atin Gupta, MD, Atin OOH shared, “There is a very limited scope of wi-fi advertising opportunity inside the flights because there are various technical and financial parameters involved such as the bandwidth and satellite links above the ground that has to be appropriate to provide the proper connectivity to the passengers wherein the carrier designed for this module comes at a huge cost”.

Internationally, there are two modules followed by the aircraft operators i.e. paid service and free of cost. There are some 8 airlines including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Air China, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, and Delta Airlines that charge flyers $3.99-$22.30 per flight along with different packages for mobile, laptop and tablet connectivity. “The decision of providing this service whether free or non-free will also make the difference in the Indian market,” says Atin. Wherein, as per the reports, the satellite links created for the Indian industry require aircraft operators to make changes to their aircrafts which is expected to increase tariffs from economical prices designed for the Indian markets and not to forget that low-fair cost carriers are a big hit in India because of their affordable prices. 

Nevertheless, it is too early to judge the ride of Wi-Fi airplane advertising as Atin says that the final results will only be out once the service begins in India and the way airline operators adopt this service to make it available for their passengers. While the new category of in-flight connectivity service provider is ready, the norms for that will be designed by the telecom and aviation ministries soon. And by the end of May, applications will be invited by telecom authorities for this category.