Delta deploying iPads to pilots as electronic flight bag replacements
By John Hiesler: — Delta Airlines has begun testing Apple's iPad as electronic flight bags (EFB). EFBs help reduce paper by digitizing on-board flight information that has typically been printed out.
Context & Ripple Effects
Delta's iPad test is the third leg of a pattern that has been building all year: the FAA cleared the iPad for pilots' charts back in February 2011 (FAA OKs iPad for pilots' charts), Alaska Airlines moved first by ditching its paper flight manuals in May (Alaska's paper-to-iPad switch), and the New York Times flagged the broader replacement trend in July. What was an early-adopter experiment at one carrier is becoming table stakes across U.S. aviation.
Delta joining means two of the largest U.S. carriers are now actively evaluating the same consumer tablet for a safety-critical cockpit role, which shifts the question from whether iPads belong in flight decks to how quickly regulators and airlines standardize on them.
First-order effects
- Delta's pilots testing the iPad as an electronic flight bag stand to replace printed flight information with a single device, cutting paper weight and update logistics from the flight deck immediately.
- Apple gains a high-visibility enterprise reference: a safety-regulated deployment at a major airline that validates the iPad beyond media and office use.
Second-order effects
- Rival carriers that have not yet committed — American among them, given the Times' July report on manuals going digital — face pressure to match Delta rather than be seen lagging on both cost and modernization.
- Aviation chart and manual publishers lose their guaranteed print-replacement cycle as airlines internalize digitized content on commodity tablets instead of dedicated EFB hardware.
Third-order effects
- If the FAA's February clearance becomes a template for approving consumer tablets in more cockpit functions, the dedicated avionics EFB market gives way to consumer hardware plus certified software — a structure the Air Force's reported interest in bulk iPad purchases would extend into military fleets.
- Airlines gain a data-bearing device in every cockpit, positioning carriers like Delta to layer operational software onto the same hardware over time.
The trend: Consumer tablets are displacing purpose-built and paper-based electronic flight bags in commercial cockpits, with each major carrier adoption normalizing the category for regulators and competitors alike.