American Airlines receives FAA approval to use Electronic Flight Bags in all phases of flight

FORT WORTH, Texas, 15 Sept., 2012. American Airlines is expanding its iPad electronic flight bag (EFB) program after receiving FAA approval to use the iPad in the cockpit during all phases of flight.

American's pilots will be using the iPad, the only FAA-approved tablet, as an EFB in approved aircraft. An EFB reduces or replaces paper-based reference material and manuals often found in a pilot's carry-on kitbag. Removing the 35-pound kitbag from each American Airlines plane will save an estimated $1.2 million of fuel annually.

The goals American hopes to achieve by using the iPad EFB are to improve the work environment for pilots, reduce the airline's dependency on paper products, and increase fuel efficiency on their aircraft.

As part of the EFB program, American's pilots will use mobile software and data from Jeppesen, a unit of Boeing Flight Services. The FAA-approved Jeppesen application, which is allowed for gate-to-gate use throughout all phases of flight, will replace paper operating manuals with real-time, up-to-date electronic information.

American's pilots will start using iPads this month on the airline's 777 fleet. American aims to have FAA approval for use in all fleet types by the end of 2012. Beginning in January 2013, American will stop distributing paper revisions to its flight manuals and most navigation charts.

To ease the transition company-wide, all American Airlines active pilots and instructors will receive an iPad for use in training and inflight.

American first received FAA approval to use iPads in the cockpit in 2011, which came several months after American completed testing with pilots using iPads in the cockpit.