JetBlue is the latest airline to ditch its flight manuals for iPads. The budget airline received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to give its pilots custom-equipped iPads to replace heavy paper manuals and serve real-time information to the cockpit during the flight.
Over 60 pilots have been involved during the trial phases of JetBlue’s iPad program, but JetBlue will give all 2,500 pilots a fourth-gen 16GB Wifi-only iPad. The company has been approved to use PC-based laptops in the cockpit for 10 years now, but the company says the iPad will offer new capabilities as JetBlue implements Ka-Band satellite Wifi.
We’ve seen a number of airlines embrace the iPad over the last few years, as the tablet saves airlines money on paper as well as fuel costs, but JetBlue’s senior VP of operations, Jeff Martin, says his company’s iPad program will help improve the customer experience too.
“We are one step closer to a paperless cockpit. The iPads will have real-time weather capability and the ability to update safety and flight documents securely. We expect to add digital chart capability, once it is approved. Our pilots will have the fastest real-time images in the air.
Pilots will be able to make decisions to help improve the customer experience, such as having a more robust weather briefing that can be used to update customers during the flight about what to expect en route.”
JetBlue says it will begin to roll out the new iPad program over the next three months.
Source: PR Newswire
