I'm sure the airside kits are a prelude to electronic kits one day, however I think someone mentioned it here before how even the smallest change on a web page can take over a year to process through a technology department. I mean even transitioning to online based recurrent training, eliminating the CDs, is taking a good amount of time, so I just don't think they have the full available resources to focus on it.


As much as it would probably save in the long run, I think you would be looking at a relatively high upfront price. The company is probably trying to figure out the best time to show such a loss due to this expense.

I've heard that Jeppesen isn't exactly passing on a huge amount of the savings onto the airlines even though production and shipping costs would go down. Makes sense to hold out for this until Jeppsen starts offering a better deal.

Personally, being an Ipad owner, I think the devices are great and I have started to see there application in other parts of our company, but I think there may be better options out there. The devices are great, but beyond there usability, there is a public stigma out there that goes along with pilots using Ipads, especially after the laptop incident. This isn't exactly a driving factor, nor should it be, but it would be foolhardy not to think that the potential for distraction would occur somewhere in the system.
(Dependant on how they are reprogrammed of course)

Talking Tech | Ipads on Alaska Airlines on Vimeo

I would love to see something like this soon, but just looking at the size of our company, I think we are a good amount of time away from this. I'm typically wrong though so, who knows.