not sure but would they have to pay for an entertainment licence? as well as maintain tv's etc.

TV`s are there anyway for safety messages.

It may have looked easy, and the act of putting a cassette into a player is very easy but a lot of work and constraints go into having IFE on an aircraft.

Cassettes are a dying media format that are now very costly to maintain and repair, especially on aircraft. A lot of airlines used Hi-8 tapes which went out with the dinosaurs.
The time has come where these machines needed to be changed to DVD players-DVDs are not has hard wearing in an aircraft environment with multiple users as they are at home with their owners, that added to the actual cost of purchasing, getting them certified and fitted to different aircraft, that may be leaving the fleet very soon in relative terms becomes a costly exercise.

Many of the scheduled airlines customer profile doesn't lend itself to IFE users on overhead monitors-businessmen who don't want to be disturbed or people who just want to get from a-b.
in regards to the charter operators many of these sell headphones which have to either subsidise or pay for the systems, many people are wise to this and bring or buy their own from outside the airline therefore it doesn't become cost effective to invest in new systems for charter operators or scheduled when so little customers value them or are willing to pay for them. As licenses are expensive, one reason Thomson airways when they use 767's with seat back IFE on all but long haul routes they are turned off as Thomson doesn't pay on mid/short haul routes for the license.

Hope this helps,

Tv monitors are not always present to show safety messages, manual demos are sometimes carried out.

I thought airlines had done research which showed that on short haul flights IFE was being used less and less these days. What with IPods and IPads, kindles plus books and magazines many are just not bothered, preferring their own choices. Coming back from Egypt last year a middled aged woman next to us played a Nintendo for about four hours.

I would imagine as planes on short haul routes are gradually replaced whatever IFE equipment that was used on them will not be put in new aircraft. Short haul charters don't seem to find it economic and short haul scheduled like BA's passengers don't want it as they are often working/preparing for meetings etc

It’s a pity about the demise of short/medium haul IFE, I’ve watched (and enjoyed) many films I’d otherwise never have considered – but technology moves on I guess.
I remember one of the first Thomson 767s, with central screen IFE from EMA to Majorca way back in 1984, it showed only TV series, and the headphones were those interesting things based on rubber tubes – no personal ones possible!
But personally owned and carried IFE is now a low cost option – a cheap tablet PC or MP4 player – and convert all those DVDs that you never got around to watching at home.

On our flights to Tunisia in December with Thomas Cook had IFE.

Thomas Cook dropped it, and then reintroducd on some aircraft. Wide bodied have it, and most 757s. A320/1 don't have any.

I dont know what the flight on the outward journey was called but it featured some graphically horrific images despite children on board.
Thank goodness I had a good book!

most short flights don't have em and the long ones do