American Airlines in November will begin testing the Personal Entertainment Appliance (PEA) portable entertainment system. The units will be complimentary in First Class and offered for a $10-$12 fee in the main cabin. During the 12-week test, passengers traveling on Chicago to West Coast routes, Dallas to Seattle and New York to San Diego, would be given the option of renting a small device with a 9-inch screen once they are onboard. The systems will contain about 12 recently released movies, 24 music videos, television programming, excerpts from audio books, games and digital newspapers. The passenger will swipe a credit card to activate the device, which weighs about 3 pounds and can easily rest on a tray table. The systems will be digitally encrypted so that if a passenger walks off the aircraft with one of the devices, they will not be able to remove content from the machine’s hard drive.

Virgin Atlantic Airways will soon offer YES – Your Entertainment System – on some of Its Boeing 747 aircraft. The airline will also offer “digEplayer,” which was previously tested on Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines charges $10 for the use of the digEplayer.