Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - 5:10 AM HAST Wednesday

It may seem odd when airlines are dropping a decades-old practice of giving away food, but some have decided it will help them to give away entertainment.

Food is expensive and tricky to prepare, but on-demand movies, live television, music and games can be installed at each seat, with little cost or hassle after the initial capital expense.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (Pink Sheets: DALRQ) has figured this out, and announced Wednesday it will offer just that on every seat on some domestic flights -- in first class and coach.

Delta, which will roll out the service gradually beginning with some of its more competitive Mainland routes, isn`t the first airline to try this. JetBlue already has something similar.

Hawaiian Airlines in early 2004 became the first U.S. airline to begin using portable entertainment players on flights. The digEplayer 5500, made by Tacoma, Wash.-based APS, is rented from beverage carts to