AirAsia India in Partnership With Zee5 Creates History With the 1st in-flight Premiere of the Cult Show, TVF Pitchers Season 2

AirAsia India premiered TVF Pitchers: Season 2, on its in-flight experience hub ‘AirFlix’, 36,000 feet in the air, with a star-studded premiere attended by fans and the cast of the show.

AirAsia India flyers can now indulge into high octane entertainment with ZEE5, the first OTT platform, in air

Charting another milestone in a string of first-of-its-kind initiatives, AirAsia India organised an exclusive premiere of TVF Pitchers: Season 2 for its recently launched in-flight experience hub ‘AirFlix’, powered by Sugarbox and OTT partner ZEE5. To mark the occasion, the director and cast of the cult series TVF Pitchers [S2] attended the in-flight premiere on i5-784 from Delhi to Bengaluru on 22nd December. The upcoming season of 'TVF Pitchers' on ZEE5 features an ensemble cast and crew of Naveen Kasturia, Abhay Mahajan, and Arunabh Kumar directed by Vaibhav Bundhoo.

This strategic partnership with ZEE5, India’s largest homegrown OTT platform, enables AirFlix to offer a curated slate of content featuring more than 6,000 hours of high-resolution content, enabling access to more than 1,000 international and Indian movies, short films, and 1500+ episodes of web series, for an enhanced flying experience. The alliance makes Zee5 the first-ever OTT platform to be available for passengers onboard, where users can stream lag-free content. Powered by Sugarbox, with AirFlix flyers can also place in-flight orders for food and beverages, as well as shop curated e-commerce brands like Boat, Man Matters, Arata and more.

From Left to RIght - Arunabh Kumar, Naveen Kasturia, Abhay Mahajan and V..

Commenting on the new initiative, Mr. Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 India said “ZEE5 is happy to bring this industry-first initiative of making OTT content accessible to flyers for an enhanced flying experience. As a consumer first brand, ZEE5 has held audience demands at the epicentre while charting its business strategy. With this move, flyers can now enjoy ZEE5 content mid-air as part of their in-flight entertainment exposure. We are thankful to our partners AirAsia India and Sugarbox for this strategic collaboration, enabling increased accessibility to entertainment choices and going beyond with innovation for enhanced consumer experiences. We, at ZEE5, will continue to leverage our consumer-first strategy to innovate and invest in making content accessible to a wider audience base across touchpoints.”

"We are thrilled to organise a first-of-its-kind grand premiere 36,000 feet in the sky, narrowcasting the entire season of the cult show TVF Pitchers on our new in-flight experience hub AirFlix, along with the director and cast of the show. It’s been a pleasure collaborating with our technology partner Sugarbox and OTT platform ZEE5, to co-create this unique experience." said Siddhartha Butalia, Chief Marketing Officer of AirAsia India. "We are always looking for innovative ways to enhance the in-flight experience. It’s a delight to bring exclusive experiences like this to life in the air with like-minded partners."

​Rohit Paranjpe, Co-founder & CEO, Sugarbox, expressed, "AirFlix is a first of its kind initiative globally, where we are bringing the power of the Cloud to aircrafts. Using this technology, we have enabled Zee5 to be the first OTT App available for flyers in-air, without internet connectivity, and unique experiences like the premiere of TVF Pitchers S2. This convergence enables ‘AirFlix’ to offer many firsts for the tech-toting passengers today, through contextual, hyperlocal services to transform the flying experience."

The airline remains committed to driving operational excellence and an enhanced guest experience with pioneering digital and marketing initiatives like cloud-tech powered in-flight experience hub AirFlix, its award-winning website and mobile app, AI-powered conversational chatbot Tia, real-time internal aviation app RedSmart, and integration with innovative service providers to enable products like FlyPorter baggage delivery services, and seamless Single-Sign, profile management and personalisation built on the Tata NeuPass loyalty program.

About AirAsia India

AirAsia (India) Private Limited is a subsidiary of Air India Limited and a part of the Tata group. AirAsia India commenced operations on 12th June 2014 and flies over 50 direct and 100 connecting routes across India. The airline offers plush leather seats, Gourmair hot meals and a host of exclusive benefits for NeuPass loyalty members.

AirAsia India has consistently embraced technology to deliver operational efficiency and enhance the guest experience, offering fast bookings, fab deals and fantastic value on its award-winning mobile apps and website airasia.co.in, and delivering seamless support with an advanced AI-powered multilingual chatbot Tia. For the latest on AirAsia India’s innovations, promotions, activities and contests, check out AirAsia India on Twitter @AirAsiaIndia, Instagram @AirAsiaIndia, Facebook @AirAsiaIndia and LinkedIn @AirAsiaIndia.

About ZEE5

ZEE5 is India’s and Bharat’s largest homegrown video streaming platform and the multilingual storyteller for millions of entertainment seekers. ZEE5 stems from the stable of ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), a Global Content Powerhouse. An undisputed video streaming platform of choice for consumers; it offers an expansive and diverse library of content comprising over 3,500 films; 1,750 TV shows, 700 originals and 5 lakhs+ hours of on-demand content. The content offering spread across 12 languages (English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, and Punjabi) includes best of Originals, Indian and International Movies, TV Shows, Music, Kids shows, Edtech, Cineplays, News, Live TV, and Health & Lifestyle. A strong deep-tech stack, stemming from its partnerships with global tech disruptors, has enabled ZEE5 to offer a seamless and hyper-personalised content viewing experience in 12 navigational languages across multiple devices, ecosystems, and operating systems.

Facebook: Facebook.com/ZEE5

Twitter: Twitter.com/ZEE5

Instagram: Instagram.com/ZEE5

LinkedIn: LinkedIn/ZEE5

About Sugarbox

Sugarbox is bringing the world its first Hyperlocal Cloud platform to support the Internet of the Future – of Connected Devices, Applications, People and Things. We are solving for deficiencies in connectivity (availability, reliability, latency and cost) and context awareness (who, where, what), by getting the Cloud closer to the End user and providing the best-in-class experiences for the Connected, Under-connected & Unconnected.

Co-founded by Rohit Paranjpe, Devang Goradia and Ripunjay Bararia in 2016, Sugarbox is reimagining Digital access. Using its patented technology platform, Sugarbox enables native Apps to function seamlessly, even when data connectivity is intermittent or unconnected. Presently, the Company works with the likes of Chennai and Hyderabad metro, Central Railways (Suburban Mumbai region) and has powered more than 300gram panchayats across Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh. Sugarbox is now entering the skies with the AirAsia India partnership.

AirAsia India Partners With Sugarbox to Launch ‘first in the World’ Multi-feature in-flight Experience Hub, ‘Airflix’

Bringing the power of the Cloud 36,000 feet in the sky, to offer contextual in-flight experiences, for guests

AirAsia India announced a partnership with Hyperlocal Cloud platform Sugarbox, to launch a first-of-its-kind in-flight experience hub, ‘AirFlix’. An innovative solution for digital access in the skies, ‘AirFlix’ is available across the airline’s fleet. Offering a value proposition unique to Indian skies, ‘AirFlix’ provides over 6,000 hours of high-resolution content, enabling access to 1,000+ International and Indian movies, short movies and 1,500+ web series episodes, enabling guests to stream buffer-free content from OTT Apps.

‘AirFlix’ is powered by the patented Cloud Fragment technology developed by Sugarbox, to provide fliers with digital access mimicking the internet experience, even without in-flight connectivity. ‘AirFlix’ is integrated and operates in sync with AirAsia India’s in-flight ancillary platform, enabling customers to browse the menu and place orders using their personal devices. With a speed of up to 1Gbps and storage capacity of 8TB, ‘AirFlix’ offers a host of customised options, including Games, Ed-tech content, News articles, Music, E-commerce, and much more. Guests can connect to ‘AirFlix’ by visiting www.airflix.airasia.co.in on their smartphones, tablet PCs, or laptops.

Talking about the launch, Siddhartha Butalia, Chief Marketing Officer, AirAsia India, said, "We’re excited to introduce the ‘AirFlix’ experience hub for fliers and to partner with Sugarbox on their pioneering technology platform, offering a wider and more diverse range of captivating content and a literally elevated user experience. We’re looking forward to leveraging the potential of this platform, introducing innovative features and technological integrations even beyond in-flight dining, entertainment, and shopping, and enabling personalised experiences that provide a distinct, differentiated flying experience in a hyper-competitive market.”

Speaking about the collaboration, Rohit Paranjpe, Co-founder & CEO, Sugarbox, expressed, "We are delighted to partner with AirAsia India on their journey to revolutionise the flying experience with ‘AirFlix’. This is a first of its kind initiative globally, where we are bringing the power of the Cloud to aircrafts, using Sugarbox’s patented Cloud Fragment technology. It enables ‘AirFlix’ to offer many firsts in the industry - access to OTT Apps, E-commerce, News, Podcasts and In-flight F&B ordering. This is just the beginning of unlocking limitless opportunities for consumers through contextual, hyperlocal experiences. I'm very excited with what's to come for ‘AirFlix’ and eager for fliers to start experiencing it."

Experience the #FunOfFlying with ‘AirFlix’, 36,000 feet in the air. For more information on AirFlix, visit airflix.airasia.co.in

About AirAsia India

AirAsia (India) Private Limited is a subsidiary of Air India Limited and a part of the Tata group. AirAsia India commenced operations on 12th June 2014 and flies over 50 direct and 100 connecting routes across India. The airline offers plush leather seats, hot meals and a host of exclusive benefits for NeuPass loyalty members.

AirAsia India has consistently embraced technology to deliver operational efficiency and enhance guest experiences, offering fast bookings, fab value and fantastic deals on its award-winning mobile apps and website airasia.co.in, and delivering seamless support with an advanced AI-powered multilingual chatbot Tia.

For the latest on AirAsia India’s innovations, promotions, activities and contests, check out AirAsia India on Twitter @AirAsiaIndia, Instagram @AirAsiaIndia, Facebook @AirAsiaIndia and LinkedIn @AirAsiaIndia.

About Sugarbox

Sugarbox is bringing the world its first Hyperlocal Cloud platform to support the Internet of the Future – of Connected Devices, Applications, People and Things. We are solving for deficiencies in connectivity (availability, reliability, latency and cost) and context awareness (who, where, what), by getting the Cloud closer to the End user and providing the best-in-class experiences for the Connected, Under-connected & Unconnected.

Co-founded by Rohit Paranjpe, Devang Goradia and Ripunjay Bararia in 2016, Sugarbox is reimagining Digital access. Using its patented technology platform, Sugarbox enables native Apps to function seamlessly, even when data connectivity is intermittent or unconnected. Presently, the Company works with the likes of Chennai and Hyderabad metro, Central Railways (Suburban Mumbai region) and has powered more than 300gram panchayats across Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh. Sugarbox is now entering the skies with the AirAsia India partnership. LinkedIn

AirAsia partners with JIFFY.ai for Digital Transformation with Robotic Process Automation

AirAsia Group is accelerating its ongoing digital transformation journey further by implementing robotic process automation (RPA) in collaboration with Silicon Valley and India-based enterprise automation platform JIFFY.ai.

Chief Transformation Officer Azli Mohamed said the implementation of RPA followed a review of AirAsia’s internal processes and workflows, which showed that business process automation can be done easily with the right tools in place. 

“At AirAsia, we continuously seek to push the boundaries of innovation. RPA will allow our workforce to automate mundane and repetitive tasks, which will free up valuable time to focus on other tasks that require thinking and experience-based judgment.

“RPA will enable us to increase productivity, reduce errors and redeploy resources to higher-value functions. All these benefits will ultimately translate into sizeable cost savings and top-line revenue growth.”

AirAsia has appointed India and US- based JIFFY.ai to initiate its RPA adoption, which began in May 2020. The implementation leverages JIFFY.ai’s artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled automation platform, which brings intelligent automation, intelligent document processing and analytics together in a single solution.

“We are delighted to have been chosen as the partner for AirAsia to help them on their digital transformation journey,” said Babu Sivadasan, Co-founder and CEO, JIFFY.ai. “The JIFFY.ai AUTOMATE platform is expandable and extensible and will give them the intelligent automation power they need to streamline and improve complex business processes while supporting innovation to help the business grow.”

The RPA adoption within AirAsia Group is led by select internal functions and departments in stages and will include innovative use cases to boost existing revenue optimization. Business process automation represents the next step forward in AirAsia Group’s ongoing digital transformation process across the organization, which has been ongoing since 2016. 

Pioneering RPA projects are identified through AirAsia Group’s CEKAP framework, which is designed to facilitate innovation and promote efficiency internally. Among departments identified to-date include AirAsia Global Shared Services, which expects to achieve significant cost savings and efficiency gains within 180 days of RPA adoption.

The latest key milestones in the digital transformation journey so far include the implementation of end-to-end contactless procedures in May 2020 to facilitate essential travel. These procedures include contactless payment kiosks, enhanced features on the AirAsia mobile app and contactless kiosks in all operating airports across Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan.

With the contactless kiosks, guests making their essential travel can print their boarding pass and baggage tag after checking-in online on airasia.com or through the mobile app, ensuring a full contactless check-in process. The enhanced AirAsia mobile app enables travelers to scan their passports via the app itself, further facilitating a contactless check-in process with more features to be progressively added moving forward.

JIFFY.ai is an RPA platform that leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to help companies in automating tasks and processes, thus making operations

more time and cost-efficient. JIFFY.ai has development centers in Silicon Valley, Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Kochi. JIFFY.ai’s Thiruvananthapuram centre is a Centre of Excellence in cutting edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing.

AirAsia Launches World’s 1st Blockchain-based Digital Air cargo Network

Teleport, AirAsia’s logistics division, has launched Freightchain -- a world’s first digital air cargo network run on blockchain. Freightchain is a digital network for air cargo run by airlines, born on blockchain. Freightchain offers instant cargo bookings to shippers and freight forwarders.

Launched on April 16, Freightchain allows a shipper or freight forwarder to instantly book and confirm any of AirAsia’s 247 aircraft to carry cargo, without the need to go through traditional time-consuming sales or email channels.

AirAsia claims that Freightchain efficiently discovers all available routings and facilitates on-demand bookings in minutes through bids submitted and validated on blockchain.

Freightchain is built using Hyperledger Sawtooth, an enterprise blockchain platform for building distributed ledger applications and networks, under Linux Foundation's Hyperledger open source umbrella project that deals in blockchains and related tools.

Interestingly, the first pilot booking on Freightchain was successfully conducted to ship pharmaceutical cargo from Bengaluru, India to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. An instant itinerary via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Seoul, South Korea was confirmed in real-time with flights from three different carriers through a smart contract on blockchain.

Due to the unavailability of direct flights from Bengaluru to Ulan Bator, the shipper had to manually enquire about the availability of connecting flights with multiple airlines and agents over phone calls and emails, a very tedious and time-consuming process. Freightchain simplified the booking process and confirmed the itinerary 10 times faster for shippers by programmatically discovering the available routes with connecting flights within the shipper's budget and passing on significant cost savings to shippers. For the airlines, the dynamic on-demand interlining of flights helped improve otherwise underutilized flights.