"They reduce the weight of the aircraft, and they reduce the expense associated with maintaining that equipment."
So how are we expected to distract ourselves 35,000 feet in the air?
With an in-flight entertainment app and our own mobile or tablet devices.
Virgin Australia was the first airline in Australia to have streamed entertainment (or Bring Your Own Device) on its narrow body domestic and international fleet. Introduced in 2103, it also includes gate-to-gate technology, meaning passengers start watching from as soon as they sit down to when get off the aircraft.
Qantas has also ditched the seatback screen on some of their domestic Australian aircraft, in favour of the Qantas Entertainment App that passengers can stream from their personal devices.
As a part of the 2015 refurbishment of Qantas' domestic fleet of Boeing B737-800 fleet, some aircraft had "Q Streaming" entertainment installed to supplement the screens that fold down from the ceiling.
"This will allow customers to stream on-demand TV, movies and music direct to their own laptops, tablets or smartphones," Qantas explains on its website.
"Pending approval from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, customers will be able to use their portable electronic devices in flight mode throughout the entire flight."
The airline, however, has included seatback screens its new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, which began flying in October.
In the United States, Delta Airlines announced it would make hundreds of movies and TV shows available to passengers on their personal devices and on aircraft with seatback screens in 2016, while American and United are already phasing out screens on new short-haul aircraft in favour of making use of personal devices.
And while it is true that many people now do own a smartphone or tablet capable of streaming, the move by airlines to scrap their own screens is controversial.
Patrick Ligonde, a self-proclaimed "aeroplane nerd," travels with his smartphone for his job in airline ground operations and spoke to the New York Times about the trend.
He said when he has to fly from his home base in Philadelphia, he does his research to make sure the seats he purchases have seatback screens.
"I try to use the seatback entertainment as much as possible," he told the Times.
"From a passenger perspective, it makes it easier to have the monitor right there rather than having to use my own device."
One other advantage, he said, is that he does not arrive at his destination with a dead battery.
And Ligonde's aversion is one which is shared by many business travellers, according to Harteveldt's research.
"Business travellers have said there's no room to have a smartphone on their tray if they're working on a laptop, or if they're using a tablet or smartphone for work, it's difficult to use that for watching entertainment. Having the separate screen is a plus for them," he also told the New York Times.
On Twitter, the sentiment is largely the same.
But there are some passengers who agree with the airlines.
Lindsay Renfro, an associate professor at the Mayo Clinic, is one of them. She said she travels about once a month for her job and views seatback entertainment as redundant.
"There are screens everywhere else in life," she told the Times.
"I know that when I am flying and I look around me, people are by and large using personal devices, even when a seatback screen is available to them."
