All Nippon Airways (ANA) will equip all of its approximately 2,500 flight crew with an iPad, in addition to the already equipped cabin crew. The move, which will involve ANA producing electronic versions of the flight manual, is part of ANA’s corporate strategy for FY2012-13 to support corporate structural reform to drive high-quality operations and cost efficiencies. The iPads will allow ANA flight crews access weather and other flight-related information latest data wherever they are. They will enable flight crew to choose the route and altitude with the least turbulence, and to help ensure operations run on-time. The iPads will help constant access to the latest passenger reservation information and cargo volume information, thereby promoting optimization of fuel loading to each flight.
ANA will trial the iPad among 300 crew members for three months from September. The iPads will be rolled out for all flight and crew members from February 2013. Paperless manuals will reduce printing costs and streamline the process of distributing and updating manuals that can run to several thousand pages over the course of the year. The iPads will also allow ANA to provide voice and video-based training and educational materials, facilitating more effective knowledge acquisition and supporting the maintenance and improvement of each individual flight crew member’s skill level.
