An Apple iPad a flight could save Air India Rs 900 cr yearly in costs

100 kg of papers,or one 662-gm Apple iPad? Air India has found one way to shed some of its weight and save on costs. The airline is discussing converting mandatory documents carried on board all commercial flights — including aircraft operational manual,flight crew operational manual,navigation charts and circulars — into a soft copy loaded on iPads to be issued to pilots. That may not seem much unless one considers that these documents weigh roughly 100 kg in international flights and 40 kg in domestic flights.

With iPads,that weight will come down and,in turn,lower fuel costs by over 10 per cent. Ballpark estimates worked out by a cost-cutting committee of Air-India suggest an annual per aircraft fuel savings of around Rs 7 crore.

Given AI’s fleet of 130 aircraft,annual savings could work out to around Rs 900 crore,on a total fuel bill of Rs 8,500 crore.

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“The suggestion is to feed all these documents on an iPad and provide it to pilots. This may be expensive initially but will lead to huge amount of fuel cost savings,” said a member of the committee.

Should the Indian aviation regulator give its approval,AI will be the first airline in the country to make the switch. A number of carriers in Europe and the US already carry these documents — currently stocked behind a co-pilot’s seat in the cockpit — as soft copies.