Two years ago, the travel press was full of articles about the end of seatback screens, especially in narrowbody jets in domestic service. That was then; this is now and United, one of the lines that was removing them then is installing new ones now.
United's announcement came last week as it placed a massive order for 270 new single-aisle planes, all of which will have seatback screens. In the announcement, United noted that it will be retrofitting its existing planes with screens (and with vastly enhanced overhead bins).
During the removal wave in 2019, American, United and Alaska said goodbye to seatbacks, replacing them with systems that allow passengers to stream the airlines' offerings on a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) basis. They said at the time that they believed nearly everyone was carrying a smartphone or other device usable for the purpose.
At the time, the airlines pointed to the expense of installing and maintaining FAA-approved screens (potentially a safety issue) and also touted the savings in fuel by removing their weight. United is now saying that newer planes are efficient enough to zero out the fuel issue.
However, many passengers have been unhappy with BYOD, preferring a larger screen, game controls, and not using their charge inflight. Time will tell whether the tide that's turning at United will turn elsewhere. Meanwhile, JetBlue and Delta can congratulate themselves on keeping their screens. And Southwest, which has never had any, still doesn't.
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