UNITED AIRLINESFlight Standards and Technology.ppt

UNITED AIRLINESFlight Standards and Technology FLIGHT DECK WEATHER - A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE UNITED AIRLINES “AIRNET” PROGRAM Class II EFB, Charts, Manuals, and WIC Fully funded United program In vendor selection now Phase I – domestic fleets Phase 2 – international First fleet deployments flying mid-2007 Totally business case driven approval EFB / WIC BUSINESS CASE EFB Business Case is difficult to make Industry agrees it’s a good idea, but how do you prove it pays for itself? Charts / manuals / paper replacement don’t come close to covering costs Demonstrable increased operating efficiency is key to making the case Quantifying “might-have-beens” EFB-ENABLED OPERATING EFFICIENCIES Weight balance, takeoff performance Weather-related benefits Diversion distance/time reduction Contingency fuel reduction Turbulence-related incident reduction Paper replacement Printing, shipping and paper costs Overall weight reduction THE WIC BUSINESS CASE United did detailed analysis of over 80,000 actual flights to quantify WIC benefits WIC benefits are a major, compelling part of United’s AIRNET business case Graphical and alphanumeric products Broadcast delivery, NOT request/reply ACARS cost reduction Increased operating efficiencies DOMESTIC versus INTERNATIONAL WIC BUSINESS CASES United’s two-phased approach is based on significant differences in cost/benefit International WIC is harder to cost-justify Communications is harder, more expensive Less weather information, granularity, verification Delivery must “buy itself on” aircraft for other reasons EFB – CLASS 1, 2, or 3? Class 1 cannot be used for true paper replacement in all phases of flight Class 3 costs substantially more than Class 2, making payback extremely difficult to justify Class 2 allows most payback per unit cost – BUT with some artificial limitations driven by ‘avionics thinking’ WIC on CLASS II EFBAvionics, or Not? GA is essentially exempt from AC120-76A limitations Single pilot typical operations Limite