CorpComms Magazine

American Airlines pilots are set to use iPads instead of the usual paper flight charts during all phases of flight, after the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) approved the decision.

The iPads will be used as electronic chart and digital flight manual readers, and will first be used on twin-engine Boeing-777 aircrafts, before being distributed to the rest of American Airlines' fleet.

It has been estimated that just one iPad would replace 35 pounds of paper each year, and save more than £768,130 in fuel costs.

The tablet devices will feature JeppTC, which is a flight chart app that is already available from the App Store. It will be mandatory for all onboard tablets to carry an extra battery.

Hank Putel, one of the airline's pilots, said: 'The ability to have a backlit screen with a map on it that can be panned and zoomed really significantly increases the safety aspect of taxiing an airliner on the ground. The same goes for when you're flying an instrument approach in bad weather. You have the approach chart on the iPad and you can zoom and pan and scroll to your exact location in the air while you're flying the approach.'

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