American Approved to Use iPads in Cockpits on 777s for All Flight Phases
American Airlines Boeing 777ER
Furthering its efforts to advance airspace modernization, American Airlines today announced it is expanding its iPad Electronic Flight Bag program after becoming the first commercial carrier to receive FAA approval to use the Apple iPad in the cockpit during all phases of flight.
American’s pilots will be using iPad, the only FAA-approved tablet as an Electronic Flight Bag in approved aircraft. An Electronic Flight Bag reduces or replaces paper-based reference material and manuals often found in a pilot’s carry-on kitbag.
Removing the 35-pound kitbag from each American Airlines plane will save an estimated $1.2 million of fuel annually based on current fuel prices.
“This is a very exciting and important milestone for all of us at American Airlines as we work to modernize our processes and best meet the needs of our people,” said Captain John Hale, American’s Vice President – Flight. “With this approval from the FAA, we will be able to use iPad to fully realize the benefits of our Electronic Flight Bag program, including improving the work environment for our pilots, reducing our dependency on paper products and increasing fuel efficiency on our planes. We are equipping our people with the best resources and this will allow our pilots to fly more efficiently.”
As part of the Electronic Flight Bag program, American’s pilots will use mobile software and data from Jeppesen, a unit of Boeing Flight Services. The FAA-approved Jeppesen application, which is allowed for gate-to-gate use throughout all phases of flight, will replace bulky paper operating manuals with real-time, up-to-date electronic information that is easier to access.
“Jeppesen mobile solutions will deliver our industry-leading flight information through the thousands of iPads that will be integrated by American Airlines in its operations,” said Thomas Wede, Jeppesen Senior Vice President and General Manager, Aviation. “We fully support American in this process and our mobile data software solution will work to increase operational efficiency, enhance situational awareness and reduce airline costs.”
American’s pilots will start using iPads this month on the airline’s 777 fleet. American aims to have FAA approval for use in all fleet types by the end of 2012. Beginning in January 2013, American will stop distributing paper revisions to its flight manuals and most navigation charts.
American Airlines
Category: Airnation
“Removing the 35-pound kitbag from each American Airlines plane will save an estimated $1.2 million of fuel annually based on current fuel prices.”
For those of you who participated in the “should obese people pay more for a seat” discussion a while back, does this statistic sound scary? Thirty-five pounds worth of material on their aircraft cost them 1.2 million dollars in fuel alone. Just imagine how much a 400lb passenger on each flight costs the airline…
I think utilizing the ipad “can” be efficient, but i worry about the integration and the “ease of use” by some of the elder pilots. From the language of AA’s writing here, it appears that this will be “forced” upon pilots whether they like it or not.