The dream of having an in-flight entertainment system onboard PIA, the national flag carrier, seems to be becoming a reality. In the last few months, PIA has been frequently in good news, from reforms to increased reliability, from reducing its losses to bringing new exciting destinations, it seems PIA has finally started its journey back in the right direction.

The absence of an inflight entertainment system was one of the biggest demands from the people intending to travel with PIA. The airline is now moving to induct an indigenous Inflight System and for that matter, a contract has been awarded to M/s Aviation Avionics, a Pakistani company developing customised systems for the national airline.

PIA had been trying to upgrade its Boeing 777 fleet since long with off the shelf solutions. However, newer systems also require newer seats and the whole solution becomes expensive requiring hundreds of millions to upgrade even one aircraft, an extremely difficult proposition for a cash-starved company like PIA.

Sources within PIA say that work is underway to develop a new touchscreen-based entertainment system using the experience and expertise of PIA engineers to undergo the modifications required by EGPWS and TCAS modules. A specific service provider will provide the hardware and the requisite safety and operational certifications from the regulators.