When traveling by air, there are lots of things that can contribute to a great travel experience. One of those things is inflight entertainment, since it’s otherwise easy to get bored when flying. In this post, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the airlines that offer the best inflight entertainment, as admittedly this is an area where many airlines have made huge progress in recent times.
In this post:
What makes for good inflight entertainment
Airlines have come a long way on the inflight entertainment and connectivity front. When it comes to good inflight entertainment, I’d like to think that it’s important to consider seat back and streaming entertainment, as well as inflight Wi-Fi connectivity.
What makes good for seat back or streaming entertainment?
- There’s the general availability of seat back entertainment; on what percentage of the fleet does the airline offer seat back entertainment?
- What’s the quality of entertainment like? How many movies and shows are there, how easy is the system to use, are the monitors high definition, and are there any other cool features, like bluetooth audio?
- Is there streaming entertainment? I tend to think this is less important if you have seat back entertainment, and that it’s more important if an airline lacks that
What makes for good inflight Wi-Fi?
- Obviously it’s nice to have high-speed Wi-Fi that’s actually usable for things like surfing the web and streaming
- However, there’s also something to be said for an airline offering free Wi-Fi and/or messaging; after all, that’s going to have the widest appeal, so it’s not just for those who are looking to work
- I think it’s important to acknowledge that a large number of airlines have announced plans to introduce free Starlink Wi-Fi, though the actual rollout of that is still very much a work in progress, and I want to give airlines credit based on the experience they’re offering now, and not based on what they’re promising in the future
The airlines with the best inflight entertainment
With the above out of the way, I figured I’d share what I consider to be the world’s best airlines for inflight entertainment. Essentially when you factor in both seat back entertainment and Wi-Fi, which airlines have the overall best offerings for a majority of their passengers.
I’m not going to rank these airlines, because I think which is best depends on what you value most. Instead I’ll share why I consider each of these airlines to be among the best for inflight connectivity. Let me also say that I suspect my list will look very different two years down the road, when many airlines will have rolled out Starlink Wi-Fi on a widespread basis.
With that out of the way, here are my top picks, in no particular order…
Emirates Airline
Emirates has seat back entertainment on every single plane in its fleet, featuring the ICE inflight entertainment system (which stands for Information, Communication, Entertainment). In my opinion, ICE is hands down the best inflight entertainment system in the sky, in terms of ease of use, quality of programming, and variety.
Emirates offers 6,500 different programs, with everything from the latest movies, to complete seasons of TV shows, to live TV, to podcasts, to a tail camera (on its A380s). I’ve never been bored on an Emirates flight. The only downside to the entertainment is that there’s some censoring.
While Emirates does an amazing job with seat back entertainment, Emirates’ Wi-Fi is less impressive, at least based on the current state of things. The airline uses OnAir for a vast majority of its fleet, which has low speeds. On the plus side, it’s at least reasonably priced, and many passengers even receive free Wi-Fi. On top of that, all Skywards members receive free inflight messaging.
With Emirates’ new A350s, the airline is also offering high-speed Wi-Fi on an entire fleet type for the first time, though that’s only a small percentage of the carrier’s fleet as of now. The great news is that Emirates is also rollout out Starlink Wi-Fi, which will be a game changer for the carrier.
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways offers seat back entertainment on a vast majority of its fleet, in the form of its Oryx One entertainment system. After ICE, Oryx One is probably the biggest entertainment selection you’ll find on any airline, with thousands of movies, TV, shows music albums, and more.
When it comes to Wi-Fi, Qatar Airways has historically offered “Super Wi-Fi,” where you can pay $10 per flight for Wi-Fi without speeds. However, the airline has been aggressively rolling out free Starlink Wi-Fi, which is now available on virtually all 777s and A350s. Qatar Airways is the airline that currently has the most long haul aircraft with Starlink, and that’s absolutely awesome.
Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines is probably the most well-rounded global airline when it comes to inflight entertainment, based on the current state of its fleet.
When it comes to seat back entertainment, the airline offers seat back televisions throughout its fleet, without exception. Singapore Airlines has the KrisWorld entertainment system, which offers nearly 2,000 on-demand movies and TV shows, as well as live TV. I love how Singapore Airlines also has complete seasons of dozens of TV shows, which makes it easy to binge watch.
I’d say this is the second best inflight entertainment, only slightly behind Emirates’ ICE system. The area where Singapore Airlines really excels, though, is with its inflight Wi-Fi. The airline offers unlimited free Wi-Fi to all passengers who are KrisFlyer members, and to first and business class passengers even if they’re not part of the loyalty program.
Singapore Airlines is the only major global airline to offer free Wi-Fi to all passengers on every single plane without any major limitations.
Cathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific offers seat back entertainment on every aircraft in its fleet, and the carrier’s entertainment selection is absolutely massive, with over 4,500 hours of entertainment. I find the airline has one of the best movie and TV libraries of any airline, so passengers should never get bored.
When it comes to Wi-Fi, Cathay Pacific offers free Wi-Fi for first and business class passengers, premium economy passengers enrolled in Cathay’s frequent flyer program, and Cathay Diamond and Gold members in economy. So the airline isn’t quite in Singapore Airlines’ league on that front, but isn’t bad either.
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue is the OG when it comes to inflight entertainment, plain and simple. For one, the airline has seat back entertainment on every aircraft in its fleet. This entertainment system has a selection of movies, plus DIRECTV, SiriusXM, Peacock programming, and more.
Frankly the screens on many JetBlue aircraft are a bit low quality at this point, and I don’t find the system as such to be cutting edge. But still, you can’t beat such consistency.
The area where JetBlue really shines, though, is in offering high-speed, no strings attached, free Wi-Fi. The airline partners with Viasat, and offers free Wi-Fi on all aircraft. You can connect as many devices as you want, and you don’t even have to be a member of JetBlue’s loyalty program. What’s wild is that JetBlue has now been offering unlimited free Wi-Fi for well over a decade, so the airline has been in a league of its own.
Delta Air Lines
Delta is by far the best of the “big three” US carriers when it comes to inflight entertainment. The airline offers seat back entertainment on most of its mainline fleet (with the exception of Boeing 717s), and that comes in the form of the Delta Studio system.
Delta Studio offers over 1,000 hours of inflight entertainment, with a library of movies and TV shows, as well as live TV, a map feature, and more.
Another area where Delta really excels is with inflight Wi-Fi, as the airline offers free Wi-Fi to all SkyMiles members on most aircraft. The catch is that this isn’t available on all aircraft, or in all regions of the world, so it’s not quite at its full potential yet. Hopefully we continue to see progress there in the near future.
Air Canada
Air Canada doesn’t get much recognition for this, but I think the airline is highly underrated when it comes to its inflight entertainment. For one, the airline has seat back entertainment on an incredible number of jets — the airline even has seat back entertainment on many of its regional jets.
Air Canada also has a massive entertainment selection, with over 2,500 hours of entertainment, including everything from movies, to TV shows, to live TV. Heck, the airline is even retrofitting its narrow body jets with new entertainment systems that include tail cameras, which I love.
When it comes to inflight Wi-Fi, Air Canada offers free messaging on all flights to Aeroplan members, and unlimited free Wi-Fi on most aircraft, particularly on flights within North America.
Bottom line
As technology continues to improve, many airlines are investing in inflight entertainment, but in different ways. Some airlines are investing in seat back entertainment, others are investing in streaming entertainment, others are investing in Wi-Fi, and some are investing in all of them.
Some airlines definitely stand out as being better than most, so the above are my top picks, as they’re all airlines on which I’m never bored. I suspect a couple of years from now my list will look every different, once some airlines have fully rolled out Starlink Wi-Fi.
What are your favorite airlines when it comes to inflight entertainment, and why?
Personally the censorship on the middle eastern carriers genuinely can make a hilarious movie unwatchable.
I have noticed this more recently and it is actually a factor I now consider when choosing/booking airlines.
Of course, minor detail, the Middle East carriers spend a lot of time cutting content out of movies that offends their Islamic sensibilities, but yeah, great, amazing, like the bar, and shower, just fabulous. Just saying… I don’t mind fewer movies that haven’t been censored. Also, movies you will find on Western carriers as a matter of course that the Islam ideologues have censored altogether, but free pillows, yay.
An underappreciated aspect of Air Canada's IFE is the lack of censorship, and the inclusion of e.g. LGBTQ+ content that you would absolutely never see on the middle east carriers.
The heavy-handed censorship of swear words, let alone any suggestion of sex (on a program you are watching alone with headphones) on many carriers is pretty wild. Air India could cut a 22-minute episode of TV down to 10 minutes with their censors on the case.
Personally, I believe that the airline with the best inflight entertainment is the one which I happen to be travelling on at the time. You see, I never depend upon the choices which any airline wishes to load onboard. My laptop is loaded with my choice of music, audiobooks and videos.
That said, on occasion I do indulge in a particular film, etc, which the carrier has loaded. However, with so much of my own material with me, I am never disappointed.
It'd be brilliant if you can play your content from your mobile or tablet onto the telly!
No known airlines/monitors allow one to connect an external device for such purposes. One understands that this is for security reasons.
I reckon years ago CX having a 30 pin connector to watch your own devices. And I even got it to work once. I'm not sure why they decided to invest in a socket that was hardly used if ever. And Singapore and ANA also have HDMI sockets which I've seem some folks use to connect their laptop for work or whatever.
And I would say it's rather if the airline and IFE vendor...
I reckon years ago CX having a 30 pin connector to watch your own devices. And I even got it to work once. I'm not sure why they decided to invest in a socket that was hardly used if ever. And Singapore and ANA also have HDMI sockets which I've seem some folks use to connect their laptop for work or whatever.
And I would say it's rather if the airline and IFE vendor offers the capability and enables it.
Have a look:
https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2025/05/rave-new-world-safran-pairs-ped-casting-with-edge-caching-for-ife/
https://www.futuretravelexperience.com/2025/11/safran-passenger-innovations-vision-for-the-future-of-inflight-tech-digital-transformation-personalisation-and-cloud-connected-systems/
https://paxex.aero/safran-rave-content-caching-casting-inflight-entertainment/
"I reckon years ago CX having a 30 pin connector to watch your own devices."
"I reckon years ago CX having a 30 pin connector to watch content from your own devices." (correction)
So it just depends on the IFE vendor if they have the casting function and airline if they want to enable the feature.
That would be an absolute disaster and disabled in short order. Can you imagine what people would cast to a screen if they could? "Personal" movies, or maybe playing airline crash videos as a joke. Way too much liability with that one.
And that would just open the door for hacking. Most IFE is woefully insecure by default, as is a lot of software these days. Imagine someone replacing the safety video with a parody,...
That would be an absolute disaster and disabled in short order. Can you imagine what people would cast to a screen if they could? "Personal" movies, or maybe playing airline crash videos as a joke. Way too much liability with that one.
And that would just open the door for hacking. Most IFE is woefully insecure by default, as is a lot of software these days. Imagine someone replacing the safety video with a parody, or showing comments from this blog on repeat. Shudder.
Speaking of cameras, it'll be interesting to see what kind of feeds the IFE will get from the 77X GMCS whether its just the standard nose gear or for the first time fed through the IFE system, the horizontal stabilizer and folding wingtips. At the moment, no airline has fed the horizontal stabilizer on the IFE (that I know of), so that will be a first. And the cameras on the 77X will be HD-spec...
Speaking of cameras, it'll be interesting to see what kind of feeds the IFE will get from the 77X GMCS whether its just the standard nose gear or for the first time fed through the IFE system, the horizontal stabilizer and folding wingtips. At the moment, no airline has fed the horizontal stabilizer on the IFE (that I know of), so that will be a first. And the cameras on the 77X will be HD-spec as the current GMCS is not HD unless retrofitted.
And does anyone know what airline offers casting through the IFE? I would love to AirPlay my content on the telly in front!
Any list other than "Worst Airlines In The World" that has JetBufu and Delta on it is one worth disregarding.
Movie selections in Emirates & Qatar are wonderful & Latest. Q Suites makes it feel like home, Emirates Business Class sucks. Singapore selection of movies are Garbage. CX is good also.
This is the least important thing for me in business class. Good food, comfortable seats and if I have time, 1-2 movies. Don't need too much.
Sometimes finding one film is hard. BA’s selection in January was woeful, but this week it’s much better.
Qatar cannot make my list because of how aggressively they edit their movies. I tried to watch Bad Moms and had to switch to Moana because i felt confident Moana would at least be the real film
Reposting my comment from when this article was last published at the end of 2024:
I continue to maintain that CX’s IFE system is one of the very best and most professional-looking I’ve ever experienced, both the light-mode IFE on the A321neo and some A350s, and the dark-mode IFE on other A350s. Whatever Cathay Pacific has lost in its service in recent years, it more than makes up with its spectacular IFE, including the awesome...
Reposting my comment from when this article was last published at the end of 2024:
I continue to maintain that CX’s IFE system is one of the very best and most professional-looking I’ve ever experienced, both the light-mode IFE on the A321neo and some A350s, and the dark-mode IFE on other A350s. Whatever Cathay Pacific has lost in its service in recent years, it more than makes up with its spectacular IFE, including the awesome tail camera. In the recent article on the world’s best J airlines, I wonder why CX ranked very low in the list despite being all-round stellar — and I’d certainly place CX far above the Taiwanese airlines (BR and JX), because IFE content is more important to me, personally speaking.
And the more Western an airline, the better for its IFE — and that includes CX’s Oneworld partners Qantas and Finnair, which have two of the most super-slick interfaces. I also love United’s refreshed IFE, as seen on planes with the new United Next cabins.
In contrast, while EK is unparallelled in terms of selection and I love its touchscreen handset, its UI on A380s and 777s is frozen in 2011 with all sorts of glossy effects and looks pretty outdated. However, the A350s have a significantly nicer IFE system, which was greatly needed.
As much as Northeast Asian airlines (Japanese and Taiwanese ones in particular) have absolutely brilliant J and F products nowadays, almost all of them have very subpar IFE selections, and that’s because they aren’t very westernised airlines. At JAL — even with the A350-1000’s 4K IFE on the 43” screen — there is a very clear sense that this is *not* an airline that’s very proficient in English, and that it can’t communicate freely and informally the way a Western airline like United or KLM can. Which is all the more reason to commend CX for its entertainment selection, and how it has a dedicated section for Disney+ and other specials.
Funny you posted this, timing wise. I have a couple of flights coming up on EK this weekend (one LONG, the other eight hours), and I've been looking at their ICE offerings already to figure out what I want to see. One real benefit of the long hauls is the ability to catch up on movies, with the only interruptions being for drinks and sliders.
The irony that their entertainment system is called... ICE.
Yeah, I'mm'a enjoy some OryxOne soon, too.
Whichever airline has the guts to have the full uncensored version of season one of Heated Rivalry on its library will get my vote? #HeatedRivarly #IlyaRomanov #ShaneHollander #ScottHunter #Kip
Spirit's passenger interactions are great entertainment too.
I thought those passenger interactions were called "cageless cage fights."
JetBlue is the OG, but Delta Song (RIP) was so much better back in those first years.
Qatar has a terrific system but searching through it is tedious.
SQ has great selection but the interface on the 350 long haul is just terrible. No touch screen in J and the handheld device is awful.
AC doesn’t rank at all.
For real. SQ needs to just update a350 cabins. New J seats, please. No more 'turn the seat over' and 'lie-flat, but legs at an-angle'... for 18+ hours.
What exactly is the problem with SQ’s older J seats? The turning the seat over part is indeed a bit impractical maybe, but what’s the deal with the angle part? So many complain about this but I don’t get it.
Is it that you sleep at an angle relative to the seat or the angle itself? If it wasn’t for the forward facing seat it’s essentially a reverse herringbone seat for sleeping.
Quite! …. Nasir, has hit the nail on the head. Only a U.S. centric aviation blog would prefer the U.S. dominance of the visual entertainment media. Other cultures and real quality productions are ignored by the proletariat. After all, the airlines must pander to the lowest common denominator to stop those in the back from revolving.
Log-in, or we know you're the faker.
The same could be said of you 1990Bot …. practice what you preach, yes?
Touché AeroB13a, 1990 faker should practice what he preaches.
Since we're roughly the same age, I've always loved JAL as a kid. From the map to the cameras on the 744s. Interestingly, they didn't keep the cameras on the 77Ws during their retrofit way back in 2013. And JAL was known for the cameras.
Now, I care more about the cameras and high-def map. Live TV along with casting would be a plus. Does anyone have casting feature anyway? Wi-Fi - meh.
IIRC,...
Since we're roughly the same age, I've always loved JAL as a kid. From the map to the cameras on the 744s. Interestingly, they didn't keep the cameras on the 77Ws during their retrofit way back in 2013. And JAL was known for the cameras.
Now, I care more about the cameras and high-def map. Live TV along with casting would be a plus. Does anyone have casting feature anyway? Wi-Fi - meh.
IIRC, Qatar is the only airline that has cameras on the IFE system on any of the 787s and Air Canada is the only one to have them on a narrowbody. (why just narrowbodies?!) And I know that someone has cameras on their A330s, but I can't remember who.
While wishful thinking, I would hope Cathay elevates the A330 experience even more at least on the IFE side of things especially the cameras.
It’s telling that CX is the only airline from Northeast Asia with an outstanding entertainment selection, and keeps enhacing and improving its interface to include small touches like when the meals will be served, etc. No matter how fantastic their onboard products otherwise, NH, JL, BR, JX, etc. will always lag in their IFE selections compared to CX. This comes down largely to the poor level of English and the lack of Westernisation at Japanese,...
It’s telling that CX is the only airline from Northeast Asia with an outstanding entertainment selection, and keeps enhacing and improving its interface to include small touches like when the meals will be served, etc. No matter how fantastic their onboard products otherwise, NH, JL, BR, JX, etc. will always lag in their IFE selections compared to CX. This comes down largely to the poor level of English and the lack of Westernisation at Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean airlines — not even counting Mainland Chinese airlines, which are far worse in almost every aspect.
I think CX’s IFE — they don’t call it StudioCX on board any more (but I think they do on the website) — is one of the best out there in the world, even on the A321neo with its subpar recliners in J. However, I don’t think the A330s — even the upcoming A330neos — will be fitted with tail cameras, since it’s simply not standard on A330s.
For SQ, KrisWorld is a somewhat outdated system at this point, and the screen glare on the regional A350s (which I mostly fly) is awful. With SQ’s refreshed A350s and upcoming 777Xs, they’ve promised a new KrisWorld system, which I think is desperately needed at this point.
Besides CX, my favourite IFE systems (among those I’ve flown) are EY, UA, AI and more recently SV’s revamped Beyond system. The effort that SV has taken to customise its IFE deserves some credit, for a Gulf airline that otherwise flies under the radar. And I love the little touches that Western airlines like B6, UA, AY and QF add in their IFE, which much better airlines from East Asia (other than CX) cannot.
"I don’t think the A330s — even the upcoming A330neos — will be fitted with tail cameras, since it’s simply not standard on A330s."
To be fair, the cameras on the post-Aria 77Ws, Air Canada's A321, and Qatar's 789 are not standard either, but an option. Pre-Aria and current regional 773s, you have the landing gear camera (or GMCS) which pilots use to taxi the aircraft. Post-Aria, Qatar's 789, Air Canada's A321, ANAs 77W, it's...
"I don’t think the A330s — even the upcoming A330neos — will be fitted with tail cameras, since it’s simply not standard on A330s."
To be fair, the cameras on the post-Aria 77Ws, Air Canada's A321, and Qatar's 789 are not standard either, but an option. Pre-Aria and current regional 773s, you have the landing gear camera (or GMCS) which pilots use to taxi the aircraft. Post-Aria, Qatar's 789, Air Canada's A321, ANAs 77W, it's actually a "landscape camera" which is a separate option which airlines can install and is a separate feed from the GMCS.
Apparently it was Aircalin who has cameras on their A330neos! But I know there's another one; Corsair maybe?! I'm not really sure. Anyway, it's an option airlines can chose. It's up to Cathay if they want to add the cameras on their A330 fleet.
In regards to SQ, they have two vendors for their IFE. Panasonic for majority of their fleet and Thales which could be found on their regional A350s. Why two vendors, I have no idea. The standard and ULR A350s along with the upcoming 779s will get a new IFE system which will most likely be the Panasonic Astrova system which really a gorgeous OLED telly.
I am not surprised that no European airline made the list. Nice to see Delta.
.... Congrats dear Tim Dunn.
Well, Delta (along with American and United) actually often updates its movies to relatively new releases. Why European carriers can't handle this is... disappointing. ME3 are usually top-notch.
LH has a pretty slick interface on Allegris-equipped aircraft, if you ask me — one of the very few things that LH did well. AY does a great job too with its indicators of the meal service, sleep, etc. on a timeline. In terms of IFE — and IFE alone — I’d probably choose a European airline like LH, AF, AY or KL over a much better East Asian one like NH, BR or JL with their honestly underwhelming and frustrating IFEs, though CX is a big exception in this regard.
If the list was *worst* IFE then we'd definitely see LOT Polish Airlines up there.