SAS

SAS offers several departures and a broader network than its competitors. With over 28 million passengers and over 1,100 daily departures, SAS offers flights to around 130 destinations. As a result, the company is concerned about flexibility, safety, environment and punctuality. This permeates all levels of the business.

SAS has, in recent years, been through many processes to move the company to a new cost-effective competitive situation. This has led to many innovative steps to ensure that the passengers will continue to be met with the same level of quality.

The Challenge: Removing 44 kg

Electronic Flight Bag contains all the information pilots need in connection regarding a flight: flight plan information and maps. To reduce administrative and fuel costs, in addition to making life easier for pilots, in 2012 SAS started pioneering a project to digitize these enormous amounts of paper.

SAS and Citrix reseller Smartphones set ambitious goals.

"We wanted new types of benefits and gains with the use of innovative technology," says Ellen Holven who led the project from flygigantens side.

The idea was that the new solution would give overall freight savings of almost 18 tons of paper. The sum would provide benefits for the pilots themselves, for the company's costs, not to mention the environment with lower resource use in both paper and fuel.

The Solution: iPad in the cockpit

1600 iPads were handed out, with a solution that automatically gave pilots all the information to carry out a flight. To roll out, pilots were also given sim cards and an installation and operation guide. Via a few keystrokes, the units are ready to use and automatically updated with applications.

"SAS wants to think again to ensure smarter operations and equip the employees with the best and most flexible tools. We see plenty of opportunities with tablets, "says Holven.

The company has placed a lot of functionality in the solution to streamline the pilots' lives. To ensure that the levels can be used without compromising security policies, SAS has invested in Citrix XenMobile. This mobile device management solution includes all activities required to meet the mobile needs and requirements, while safety and compliance laws are safeguarded. The administration is simple and role-based.

In addition, you can approve and remove applications based on the security picture, detect and protect against infected computers and remotely wipe content on devices that are stolen or lost. The Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution makes it easy to deploy applications and update devices with information for individual flights.

The iPad is equipped with a combination of standard apps and proprietary solutions, including apps for weather data, flymanual, ordering extra fuel - as well as a so-called Flight Planning Briefing Package. The latter will be updated before each departure, and contains the information pilots need in connection with the individual flight. This information was previously printed on paper.
"iPads and Citrix XenMobile give us an advanced solution that is secure, quick to implement and not least cost-effective," she says.

Result: Papers available on iPad 

Secure mobility and delivery of all types of devices are high on the priority list of many IT managers. The desire to offer the most flexible working tools are often in contrast to the requirements around information security. SAS has been very assertive and shown how the right working tools controlled in a good way can give businesses a wealth of gains.

SAS is now working on selecting a solution for electronic route manuals. Once this is in place during 2014, all papers in each aircraft - a total of approximately 44 kg - will be available on the iPad.

"We will save a significant amount in fuel costs annually due to reduced weight. In addition, the solution will require little administration. We have good cooperation with our suppliers and have developed a very effective solution because pilots are self-reliant and rollout takes place automatically, "says Holven.