Saudi national carrier flynas has announced that it has completed the migration to a paperless cockpit across its entire fleet, ushering in a new era of sophisticated technology backed infrastructure for the airline through its electronic flight bag (EFB) system.

This latest initiative significantly improves flight safety and operational efficiency, with flight crews benefitting from enhanced capabilities and effectiveness while the airline goes digital starting from the cockpit and contributes its bit to support the environment by reducing overall paper usage.

Flynas claims to be the first airline in Saudi Arabia to transition to a fully paperless flight deck.

Flynas has started using iPad tablets instead of paper charts and manuals in its cockpits as part of a fleet-wide implementation of the advanced EFB system.

The move away from paper-based records has resulted in the replacement of 442 manuals on board flynas aircraft with iPads, saving the airline valuable manpower and time.

Flynas estimates that with the adoption of the EFB system, it will save almost SR2 million annually — half a million on fuel costs due to the weight reduction from removing paper-based manuals and 1.5 million on printing manuals and shipping costs.

“The seamless migration to a paperless cockpit marks yet another milestone in flynas’ journey toward utilizing the latest technology to make significant improvements in maximizing operational efficiency,” said Captain Mansour Al-Harbi, chief operating officer of flynas.

“With iPads replacing paper flight manuals, flynas pilots will now be able to perform a multitude of tasks that previously required them to burrow through stacks of reference material and navigation charts to access operational information and exchange real-time data, which can prove decisive in their ability to make decisions,” he added.

The new system was formally pressed into service following flynas receiving the necessary approvals from the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA).