Airline passengers usually have one of X problems with inflight entertainment (IFE) systems: there’s not enough variety of content, the user interface isn’t up to modern expectations, or (and this is a very nice problem to have) there’s too much content, and passengers need a way to start filtering it down to something they’d like to watch.
Let’s dive into that last problem a bit more. As onboard (and even seat-based) inflight entertainment storage capacity has grown, passengers can be spoiled for choice by the amount of movies and TV shows available.
Moreover, airlines don’t have (or, more accurately, aren’t yet able to consistently track across aircraft) viewing histories and thumbs-up/down ratings that home streaming apps have. We thus end up with “New Releases”, “New On Board”, and then “Movies”, sometimes even “International Movies”, as if every movie is not perceived as coming from somewhere international to someone aboard a full aircraft.
Often, this leads to decision paralysis that feels much like scrolling through Netflix at home for ages, trying to figure out what to watch — and not those three random episodes of a half-dozen milquetoast US network sitcoms that end up almost as detritus littering the selection options of many IFE systems. Is it any wonder the most popular content is the moving map?
This problem of surfacing content is especially keenly felt by passengers seeking unusual or unique options, or destination content particularly relevant to their voyage.
There’s something wonderful about sitting down to a great movie as the lights go down on a long overnight flight. Image: John Walton
Films and movies related to where a passenger is going may be tucked away behind sub-sections like “Lifestyle” or “Travel & Wellness”, while cult classics that are often the perfect watch for a passenger tired of boom-bang-biff blockbusters might be hidden under a generic “Movies” category.
Enter a brilliant category option that Runway Girl Network found most intriguing on a recent Finnair flight to Osaka (on which, full disclosure, the airline had provided the ticket): the “Popular on this route” option. Here, we discovered (and bear with us here), choices like Fly me to the Saitama: From Lake Biwa With Love, the 2023 sequel to the 2019 smash hit Fly me to the Saitama.
This frankly bonkers comedy, in Japanese with English subtitles, was visually captivating, full of injokes and absolutely redolent with modern Japanese references, many revolving around the suburban prefecture of Saitama, north of Tokyo. (In a London context one might replace Saitama with Surbiton, or the New York version might be Yonkers.) All in all, it was the perfect two-hour watch over and after dinner on a long flight from Helsinki to Osaka, and not just because it made your author crave the dumplings from famous Kansai spot 551 Horai.
We also spotted in this section Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, set in Tokyo and part of the ikigai trend at the overlap between Japanese and western culture, another excellent choice.
Finnair’s button to open the airplane cameras was also very welcome. Image: John Walton
These titles were both great options, not just for Japanese passengers but (thanks to the subtitles) for English-speakers interested in Japan — a group that, we might suggest, would encompass most passengers flying there.
It’s quite the departure from the previous default on many airlines, where foreign-language media are often loaded without subtitles or dubs for other languages, sometimes even for niche or destination content that would otherwise be of great interest to inbound travellers heading for those countries.
Other great options are seasonal packs (like “Pride” or “Black History Month”) or the collections that Cathay Pacific has used to excellent effect, and a more recent innovation has been the “under X minutes” section, or even the impressively dynamic “finish before we land” option that’s really helpful when coming to the end of a flight.
This kind of human curation, mixed with algorithms that bring forward popular options, is key to putting not just great IFE on board, but making it possible for passengers to find what they want to watch.
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Featured image credited to John Walton
