Editorial: #FOMO at 35,000 feet in the air

And it’s amidst the debate on reclaiming our personal spaces while reducing screen time and the hours spent online that the conversation around in-flight WiFi services has gained momentum.

Earlier this week, it was reported that despite the Department of Telecommunications giving the go-ahead for WiFi services on commercial flights, domestic carriers have hit a speed bump on the road to high-altitude connectivity. The huge installation cost of equipment and the impact of the pandemic, vis-a-vis consumer demand, has thrown a spanner in the works in India. As per stakeholders in the business, the laggard pace of progress can be zeroed down to the hurdles of retrofitting aeroplanes with the necessary antennae, which is time-consuming and expensive.

The cost of the equipment comes down to Rs 3-4 crore per aircraft, and it must be passed down to customers. This is significant at a time when passengers are expected to cough up significant sums on simple amenities such as seat selection. Apart from burning fuel, the airline industry is known to heavily burn cash as well. This week, financial dailies projected staggering losses for the Indian aviation industry on account of the hike in fuel charges. In the current financial year, operators are set to incur losses to the tune of $3.4-4 bn, wiping out any chances of breaking even in the December quarter. A full-service Indian carrier has also introduced in-flight WiFi since September 2020 for its international flights, and the service is complimentary for about a year, with the rider that it only allows messaging and regular internet usage, but no streaming, audio or video calls, to avoid causing inconvenience to other passengers.

While other domestic carriers are expected to get the ball rolling earlier in 2022, there are a few arguments against the introduction of internet connectivity 35,000 feet above the ground. For starters, cabin crew, who already have a tough time ensuring passengers disconnect their smartphones before take-off and landing, will be staring at an altogether different beast when dealing with a crowd that considers it a privilege, or rather a birthright to be able to speak anytime anywhere, with or without a hands-free device. Soon enough, along with untimely requests for accessing the restrooms, just before take-off and landing, travellers will begin complaining about the speed of connectivity, and present arguments about how they paid for this service.

The aviation consultancy firm Capa has said airline operators in India would need a continuous flow of capital to keep the industry airborne, and this includes fund infusion to the tune of $1 bn during the period of October-March, to mitigate the losses. It is anyone’s guess as to how airlines will treat an additional expenditure on a value-added service such as in-flight WiFi, in the hopes that it might attract a slew of flyers who just need to stay online all the time. Although international airlines had already started offering this service, they are known to disable it while entering the national airspace.

One small intangible fallout of these developments is that until now, the airspace was probably the last sanctuary that had remained untouched by this constant overload of information that we call the internet. Thanks to in-flight WiFi, those final remnants of a time that one could have spent either taking a power nap, or reading in peace, or maybe just reflecting, one can kiss those sublime moments goodbye.