Modern Electronic Flight Bags for Airline Operations

It has been a decade since American Airlines became the first major airline to deploy electronic flight bags (EFBs) universally in its fleet in all phases of flight, taking paper charts out of the cockpit. EFBs have since become ubiquitous in commercial aviation.

IndiGo, the largest airline in India, has been utilizing EFBs since 2015, but the country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in May finally cleared the carrier to remove technical paper manuals from its more than 250 Airbus A320 family aircraft. After eight years of operations using Apple iPad EFBs, IndiGo proved to DGCA that “the onboard paper manuals were not being used by the flight crew and only added unnecessary weight to the aircraft,” according to the airline.

The regulator had required IndiGo to keep paper backups, but the new approval means the airline can remove 40 kg (88 pounds) from each Airbus aircraft cockpit. "By replacing paper manuals with iPads, we have taken a big step towards strengthening digitization and increasing sustainability,” IndiGo Senior VP of Flight Operations, Ashim Mittra, said. “The initiative will not only further diminish the usage of paper but also help the airline to reduce its carbon footprint.”

He noted that EFBs allow pilots “to access information quickly and nimbly, making decisions in the cockpit safer and more efficient.”

In truth, the EFBs that American, IndiGo, and other airlines started rolling out on a large scale in the middle of the last decade were mere forerunners to the sophisticated, adaptable versions being deployed by carriers today. The paper manuals that had been carried on the IndiGo aircraft as backups could not possibly contain the amount of data embedded on modern EFBs, and they certainly had no functionality beyond providing information.

EFBs first started to emerge in 2007 and the early models were “just trying to digitize the charts,” Bob Thomas, a professor in the Aeronautical Science Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told Avionics International.

EFBs in service today are a “one-stop shop” for pilots, giving them access not just to charts and manuals, but a whole range of interactive features that have made the devices a critical part of airline operations, he explained. EFB developers are now “trying to add in features to prevent runway incursions, for example,” Thomas said. “You can save the profile of the aircraft in the EFB. If you fly the same airplane, fuel burn, airspeeds and other details from previous flights can be easily accessed” to help plan the next flight.

Pilots’ checklists are generally also part of modern EFBs. “It’s really all-encompassing,” Thomas said, adding that today’s EFBs “have all the cool toys and tricks in an app” that can be continually updated.

Collins Aerospace’s latest EFB, FlightHub, which was unveiled last year, is designed to manage “the entire flight lifecycle, from start to finish,” according to the company.

“The current generation of EFBs are critical to airline operations because they allow an airline and pilots to be focused on the go,” Jon Merritt, Collins’ associate director for flight deck and electronic flight bag applications, told Avionics. “The mobile technology being utilized is designed for functionality, flexibility, and stability.”

Collins describes FlightHub as centralizing data sources and workflows “into one single stream to the aircraft, providing [pilots] fast and simple access to flight information.”

Merritt said “today’s modern EFB … [allows] airlines to focus on what’s most important for them: driving data to their pilots in a succinct and usable application.”

He noted that the flexibility of the modern EFB systems—the ability to automatically update EFBs just as with any other mobile app—is key for commercial aviation. “Airlines will always be looking for ways to improve their operation,” Merritt said. “The flexibility of the EFB platform allows for new initiatives quickly and safely, which means the platform will continue to grow and evolve with the changes.”

Another Aircraft Component

Embry-Riddle’s Thomas cautioned, however, that while today’s EFBs take the form of downloaded apps on tablets, pilots should treat the technology as another aircraft component that requires training and practice. Most airlines, he noted, issue tablets to pilots, so these should not be viewed in the same manner as a personal iPad or smartphone.

“You download an app on your [personal] phone and just start smashing around, but an EFB requires practice, planning, and training,” Thomas said. “You have to be used to it and be trained on it before you fly.”

Embry-Riddle students use ForeFlight EFBs while training in simulators and on training flights, and airlines incorporate EFBs in their training programs as well, he noted. “It’s not just flopping it into their face before they fly,” Thomas said.

For all of the benefits, there are challenges, he said. When pilots relied on paper, they often had two or three documents in front of them over which their eyes could easily go back and forth, whereas now a pilot “needs to touch multiple spots on the iPad to move back and forth between documents.”

Also, the devices need to be charged. “There is always, in the back of my mind, ‘What happens if it dies?’,” Thomas said. Boarding the aircraft with fully-charged devices, carrying extra batteries, and having cockpit charging solutions can help alleviate this concern, he said.

But the benefits go beyond streamlining information for pilots, Thomas said. “You could use the ‘sustainability’ word,” he explained. “Less weight on board, so you’re saving fuel without so many charts and documents. You’re also saving a lot of time compared to when pilots had to manually go through and update flight bags. Today, you just hit download and update.”

Experts expect the need for EFBs to continue to escalate. While the technology is widespread in U.S. and European airline operations, takeup has been slower in other parts of the world. According to a report released in May by Market Research Future, the global EFB market will be valued at $2.2 billion annually by 2030, up from $1.5 billion in 2022.

“Airline companies are increasingly utilizing electronic flight bags to optimize aircraft speed based on fuel consumption,” Market Research Future stated. “Aviation [regulators] worldwide are rapidly developing frameworks and policies for adopting ever-evolving EFB technology to meet the industry's demands … Therefore, EFB software will continue to provide efficient improvements for airlines and operators. In addition to connecting the airlines' workflow, an electronic flight bag allows streamlined communications with flight dispatchers and pilots to help ensure the efficiency of the flight crew's workloads.”

Collins’ FlightHub EFB has an optional feature called Flight Profile Optimization, which tracks weather, air traffic, and airport congestion data to present “flight-path alternatives … to decision-makers on the ground and in the cockpit.”

Market Research Future’s report noted that modern EFB apps integrate “huge amounts of flight information, including the operational flight plan and schedule, crew rosters, load sheets, weather/NOTAM data, and much more … EFBs can calculate certain aviation data such as fuel usage, flight performance, and weight and balance. An electronic flight bag also works as a communication channel for flight dispatchers, enabling messaging services for pilots and aviation staff to exchange flight briefing updates using flight dispatch software.”

An EFB “really helps maximize situational awareness and especially safety,” Ryan Bohlander, an account executive with ForeFlight (the Boeing company that produces the EFB used by Embry-Riddle), told the 2023 Redbird Migration Flight Training Conference in April in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Like Thomas, he emphasized the importance of treating an EFB as an aircraft component. “We're really good about taking out our pre-flight checklist and going around looking at [various components of the aircraft],” Bohlander said. “But so many times we don't consider that our iPad and the data therein needs to be preflighted as rigorously as the rest of the aircraft.”

Thomas said the “generational issues” that led some older pilots to chafe at EFBs when they were first deployed are fading away. Some pilots retire, of course, and most older pilots have adjusted after realizing the value of the devices. “There’s really no going back to paper,” he said. “Pilots on almost any major airline flight today are using some sort of EFB.”