Wednesday, April 29, 2015

American Airlines: iPad App Caused Delays

Fort Worth-based American Airlines said today that delays that grounded a number of its flights Tuesday evening were due to a software application on the iPads of its pilots. American did not say what the issue was, but apparently pilots ran into issues being able to view flight plans, which required them to access that data from Wi-Fi connections at gates. American, like other airlines, has been moving to a paperless system for much of its paperwork. American Airlines fully deployed an "electronic flight bag" in June of 2013, which allowed it to discontinue paper flight plans on its entire fleet. The company said at the time that the removal of those kitbags would save a minimum of 400,000 gallons and $12M of fuel annually for the company.