Airline Says Move To iPad Improves Safety, Saves Fuel, Boosts
Efficiency
United Continental Holdings announced Tuesday that it is
converting to paperless flight decks and deploying 11,000 iPads to
all United and Continental pilots. The electronic flight bags (EFB)
replace paper flight manuals, and as a first for major network
carriers, provide pilots with paperless aeronautical navigational
charts through an iPad app. Distribution of iPads began earlier
this month, and all pilots will have them by year end.
"The paperless flight deck represents the next generation of
flying," said Captain Fred Abbott, United's senior vice president
of flight operations. "The introduction of iPads ensures our pilots
have essential and real-time information at their fingertips at all
times throughout the flight."
The iPads are loaded with Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck, the
industry's premier app featuring interactive, data-driven enroute
navigation information and worldwide geo-referenced terminal
charts. The enhanced full-color, high-quality information display
ensures the right information is displayed at the right time.
"We are proud to partner with United Airlines on a project of
this magnitude with Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck," said Mark Van Tine,
president and CEO of Jeppesen. "Jeppesen and United share a long
and storied history that includes development of numerous
innovations for the aviation industry. We look forward to
continuing this partnership in integrating our digital mobile
solutions that increase efficiency, reduce costs and optimize
operations."
Each iPad, which weighs less than 1.5 pounds, will replace
approximately 38 pounds of paper operating manuals, navigation
charts, reference handbooks, flight checklists, logbooks and
weather information in a pilot's flight bag. A conventional flight
bag full of paper materials contains an average of 12,000 sheets of
paper per pilot. The green benefits of moving to EFBs are
two-fold—it significantly reduces paper use and printing,
and, in turn, reduces fuel consumption. The airline projects EFBs
will save nearly 16 million sheets of paper a year which is
equivalent to more than 1,900 trees not cut down. Saving 326,000
gallons of jet fuel a year reduces greenhouse gas emissions by
3,208 metric tons.
With iPad, pilots are able to quickly and efficiently access
reference material without having to thumb through thousands of
sheets of paper and reduce clutter on the flight deck. United and
Continental pilots' work will be streamlined as they can
immediately download updates on iPad to their electronic flight
materials, rather than waiting for paper updates to be printed and
distributed. In addition, by eliminating bulky flight bags loaded
with paper, pilots will have less to lift and carry through
airports and onboard the aircraft, reducing the risk of injury
while on duty.