Hong Kong’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific unveils energy-efficient digital flight and weather application replacing paper manuals
- Move will help airline to save 1 million litres of fuel a year
- Major airlines – such as British Airways and Lufthansa – have already scrapped paper manuals
Cathay Pacific has unveiled its new digital flight and weather application to enable its pilots to go paperless in the cockpit.
As each of the airline’s 525 daily flights used to carry up to 70kg (154 pounds) of manuals and paperwork per trip, the company estimates the elimination of paper will save 1 million litres (264,000 gallons) of fuel a year, while also reducing carbon emissions.
The interactive platform, called the “Cathay Pacific Flight Folder”, will hand pilots a digital version of preflight briefing notes and material, and tools to monitor flight progress, navigation, fuel logs, weather data and a host of other relevant things – making it easier for them to make decisions before and during a flight.
The platform also includes a digital weather system, called “MyFlightWx”, created by Hong Kong Observatory.
Many major airlines – including British Airways and Lufthansa – have already scrapped paper manuals for the cockpit. Hong Kong Airlines is also trialling paperless cockpits.