United, Continental Pilots Dump Heavy Paper Manuals for Slick iPads
United Continental Holdings, the parent company for United Airlines and Continental Airlines, has announced that pilots will be going green as the company swaps out weighty paper flight manuals for much lighter iPads.
United Continental Holdings started doling out 11,000 Apple iPads to its UA and Continental pilots earlier this month in an effort to move away from paper decks to electronic flight bags. The company cited a desire to cut down on waste and improve efficiency and safety.
The iPad weighs about 1.5 pounds, while the paper flight manual weighs about 38 pounds.
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According to a United press release, the new paperless manuals will also save 16 million sheets of paper and more than 300,000 gallons of jet fuel every year.
Instead of flipping through thousands of sheets of paper, pilots can instead hit a few buttons and access an app called Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck on the iPad. The Mobile FliteDeck app allows access to navigational charts, interactive information, and global terminal charts, according to United.
Jeppsen is a Boeing company that provides various navigation tools for air, sea and land.
“The paperless flight deck represents the next generation of flying,” Captain Fred Abbott, United’s senior vice president of flight operations, said in a press release. “The introduction of iPads ensures our pilots have essential and real-time information at their fingertips at all times throughout the flight.”
United's pilots started using the electronic devices earlier this month, and the company's full fleet will have iPads by the end of the year.
United is the second major U.S. carrier to shift away from paper manuals to the iPad.
Alaska Airlines made the same move in May, and preloaded pilots' iPads with an app called GoodReader.
