AA Replaces All Cockpit Manuals With Tablets

American Airlines has successfully deployed its Electronic Flight Bags program, making it the first major commercial carrier to use tablets for reference purposes in all aircraft cockpits during all phases of flight.

A flight bag consists of nearly 35 pounds of paper-based reference material and manuals that pilots carry in their carry-on kitbag. The American Airlines Electronic Flight Bag program replaces these with about 8,000 Apple iPads across its fleet.

The airline tested the program on Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft and subsequently received approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for using iPads on all its current fleet aircraft – Boeing 777s, 767s, 757s, 737s and MD-80s.

“Removing the kitbag from all of our planes saves a minimum of 400,000 gallons and $1.2 million of fuel annually based on current fuel prices,” said David Campbell, American’s Vice President – Safety and Operations Performance.