Last week, Alaska Airlines announced its intention to replace the manual paper pilots of flight 25 pounds iPads in mid-June. Alaska Airlines is the first major domestic carrier to do so. The initiative "to improve flight safety, improve efficiency and protect the environment," the company believes.
The pilots will receive preloaded with GoodReader iPads a PDF reader application containing all the necessary flight documents. The documents have been updated with color graphics and hyperlinks for ease of reference.
Gary Beck, vice president of Alaska Airlines flight operations, said the airline had been "exploring the idea of an electronic travel bag for several years, but until the IPAD," had never found a device that really liked. "