United Continental rolls-out iPads for pilots
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United Continental is rolling out iPads to its flight crew, as it moves towards paperless flight decks. The airline group will be 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, an app featuring navigation information and global geo-referenced terminal charts.
“We are proud to partner with United Airlines on a project of this magnitude with Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck,” said Mark Van Tine, President & 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 optimise operations.”
Each iPad, which weighs less than 0.7kg, will replace approximately 17.2kg of paper operating manuals, navigation charts, reference handbooks, flight checklists, logbooks and weather information in a pilot’s flight bag. This will, inn turn, reduce fuel consumption. A conventional flight bag also contains an average of 12,000 sheets of paper per pilot, so the EFBs also significantly reduce paper use and printing. The airline projects the EFBs will save nearly 16 million sheets of paper a year which is equivalent to more than 1,900 trees. In total, the move to EFBs will save an estimated 1,234 kilolitres of jet fuel a year, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3,208 metric tons.
The move follows the recent decision by British Airways to roll-out iPads to its cabin crew, replacing paper passenger lists.
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