ANA Group, Japan?s largest airline group, today announces that it is to 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. ANA will trial the iPad amongst 300 crew members for three months from September 2012. The iPads will be rolled out for all flight and crew members from February 2013.
As ANA looks to achieve its ambition of becoming Asia?s number one airline, it sees three key benefits of introducing the iPad for all flight and crew members.
1. Supporting High-Quality Operations
The iPads will allow 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.
2. Conserving Fuel
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.
3. Improving Internal Procedures
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 levels.
*iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc.
* Until the appropriate changes to legal changes are made, iPad-based electronic manuals will, in the same way as mobile telephones, not be used in the cabin while airborne.
Contacts: Ryosei Nomura and Megumi Tezuka
ANA Public Relations TEL +81-(0)3-6735-1111
About ANA Group
All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the ninth largest airline in the world by revenues and the largest in Japan by passenger numbers. Founded in 1952, it flies today to 76domestic and international cities in a fleet of 231aircraft serving a network of 174routes. ANA has 33,000 employees and operates about 1,000 flights a day. In 2011, it carried 43 million passengers and generated revenues of $17.1bn. ANA has been a core member of Star Alliance since 1999 and launched a joint-venture with United Airlines on trans-Pacific and Asia routes in April 2011; ANA launched a joint-venture with Lufthansa on Japan-Europe routes in October 2011. ANA has more than 23 million members belong to its Frequent Flyer Program (ANA Mileage Club). ANA is the launch customer for the world’s newest and most advanced passenger aircraft, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Source: ANA Group