Alaska Airlines, an air transport service known as one of the most greenest airline with an aim to minimize its carbon footprint and impact on the environment takes yet another step towards saving the planet. This time around, the air transport service will soon switch over to paperless reference materials for pilots. Yes, the pilots will no longer have to keep struggling with the paper for the navigation charts, they will use iPads instead. The flight bags carrying traditional flight manuals will be replaced with iPad that will come with GoodReader app and PDFs of 41 different manuals, aeronautical navigation charts, systems reference cards, and other materials.
The airline claims that this effort will help them save nearly 2.4 million pieces of paper. Replacing the flight bags would mean reduction of some 50 pounds weight, resulting in less fuel consumption too. So, this change will save both paper and fuel. The pilots now have a reason to smile as the hefty weight that they had to carry, which many a time left them with back and muscle injury will now be replaced with light-weight iPads. With this initiative, the Alaska Airlines has become the first major US airline to switch to paperless reference materials for pilots.
Via: Engadget