IndiGo equips planes with electronic flight bags, cuts down unnecessary load

Along with hi-tech, state of the art control systems, airplane cockpits also feature a slightly more archaic item – manuals and documents weighing kilos, featuring thousands of pages. According to an Economic Times report, IndiGo, India’s biggest carrier by market share, has equipped all its planes with electronic flight bags (EFBs). According to the report, IndiGo’s aircrafts will use twin iPads, which will serve as backups for each other. VMware-owned AirWatch will manage security of the iPads and ensure they are updated at all times. The software for performance accuracy and load calculations is provided by Airbus, while Jeppesen, a Boeing company, provides the navigation charts and data, shares ET. [caption id=“attachment_2333124” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  An IndiGo aircraft. Reuters[/caption] ET also reveals other carriers including SpiceJet, Jet Airways, GoAir and Air India are also mulling a switch-over to EFBs to cut down on unnecessary paperwork and heavy documents on board. While this is a new initiative for India, airlines all over the world have seamlessly shifted to EFBs and have seen some productive results as this blog suggests. For instance, Iberia – the first Spanish airline to equip cockpits with EFBs, saw reduction in aircraft weight by 60 kg and the resulting savings in fuel estimated to 150,000 euros per month for the airline on short and medium haul routes. American Airlines also replaced more than 35 pounds (approximately 15 kg) of paper-based reference material and manuals that pilots carried. “Our Electronic Flight Bag program has a significant positive environmental and cost-savings impact,” said David Campbell, American’s Vice President – Safety and Operations Performance. In 2013, at the time of complete rollout, removing the kitbag from all of their planes saved a minimum of 400,000 gallons and $1.2 million of fuel annually based on fuel prices at the time. Additionally, each of the more than 8,000 iPads they deployed then replaced more than 3,000 pages of paper previously carried by every active pilot and instructor. Altogether, 24 million pages of paper documents were eliminated. Incidentally, with EFBs, American Airlines also eliminated the biggest source of pilot injuries – heavy kitbags.