Tablet computing takes off with American Airlines

It seems that American Airlines have no doubts that the age of the tablet is certainly upon us. It has recently said that the company plans to replace its in-flight entertainment with Galaxy Tabs and even more surprisingly it is also planning to ditch paper charts in favor of an iPad application.

Further to this the Federal Aviation Administration has in fact removed restrictions that meant all iPads had to be turned off during take-off and landing. Now it is possible for American Airlines to outfit its pilots with the tablet and as such will be replacing most paper forms into digital versions.

Quite impressively this will lead to a weight saving of around 35lb per flight which would save American Airlines a huge $1.2 million a year in fuel alone! We just hope the pilots don’t find too much mid-flight entertainment as they still have a job to do!

Samsung: “The tablets will replace the airline’s current personal entertainment device in American’s premium cabinson transcontinental flights between New York’s JFK and Los Angeles, JFK and San Francisco, and Miami and Los Angeles served with 767-200 and 767-300 aircraft; international flights to and from Europe and South America served with 767-300 aircraft; and transcontinental flights departing from Boston to Los Angeles served with 757 aircraft.”

We do wonder why American Airlines have chosen to give its pilots iPad but yet its customers Galaxy Tabs. You’d of thought it would be easier to keep everything the same! Any ideas?!