This very interesting and relevant Jetblue synopsis is courtesy of Shanwick Shanwick over in the BizJet forum:
Jet Blue is a domestic airline based at JFK airport, New York. Currently they operate 11 A320 series aircraft with another 81 on order. They have been operating for just over a year.
From the start of operations, Jet Blue adopted a completely new and revolutionary method of operation. This highly original approach to the problems and execution of day-to-day flight operations makes the maximum use of “new technology” and minimum use [although not the elimination] of paper. It is corporate philosophy that prevails from the very top to the shop floor of the company including rostering/crewing, e-ticketing and maintenance.
First Impressions
Jet Blue is a highly professional, efficient, friendly and informal organisation. The offices are modern, clean, bright and tidy; the absence of piles of paper is most evident. To illustrate the informal ethic everyone wears a nametag with his or her Christian name in large bold type: the surname is barely readable. The personal issue laptops are partitioned to give space for the pilot’s own stuff and personalised set-ups are allowed; one pilot had a cartoon dog chasing his mouse pointer around the screen, another an Incredible Hulk screen saver. How would you personalise yours?
Rostering/Bidding/Crewing
The rostering/bidding system [supplied by US based NOVA] is available to the crew via the Internet. They can bid for trips/days off from home, on the road or from crew check-in using their personal laptop. They can also view a “master roster” displayed as a PDF file on the Internet.
Crewing functions, such as trip swaps, are not yet available on the Internet, although they have a working version soon to be activated. At present they use a sophisticated voicemail system that uses voice recognition for identification instead of PIN numbers.
Performance Planning
On each laptop is a copy of the performance program. This is easy to use and very sophisticated. It calculates take-off and landing performance figures based on pilot input [the Jet Blue SOP is for the F/O to do this and then for the data to be checked by the Captain] taking into account weather, windshear, runway surface condition, aircraft load and any MEL or CDL requirements. Once common data had been input it took just a few seconds to calculate all V speeds and flex/de-rates for ALL runways and intersections at JFK. It also provides a gross error check of fuel uplift, warns of illegal combinations from the MEL/CDL and works out C of G and other weight and balance problems. This system is as idiot proof as can be imagined, fully certified and not open to the errors sometimes encountered when interpolating. In real world operations it is often convenient for us to work out performance based on the worst case to cater for sudden requests from ATC to accept an intersection take-off or shorter runway. A genuine advantage with the Jet Blue system is that the program holds all the figures for all the approved runways and can be accessed in seconds ensuring that the most effective de-rate and V speeds are always employed. All calculations are saved to disk and downloaded back to the company next time the laptop is docked.
Flight Operations
I occupied a jump seat on a JFK – Burlington – JFK roundtrip. The only time I witnessed the Captain with a pen in his hand was when he signed the tech-log: Jet Blue are working on making this electronic too. I don’t think the F/O even had a pen! The only paper on the flight deck comprised of the refuelling chit, ACARS printout and the Jepps plates [again, they are working on producing the plates in an electronic format subject to FAA approval]. All the ACARS paper goes in the bin to be recycled once it has been read.
The planning and flight can be summarised as follows.
When the crew check-in they plug in or “dock” their laptops. This action, following a short login sequence, updates all the company manuals, delivers the days flight plans, weather [including satellite images] and NOTAMS. It also copies to them all company e-mail and uploads previously stored performance information back to the company. Crew notices arrive as an e-mail which they read and then reply to as a method of acknowledging receipt. The Jet Blue system architecture allows these actions to be performed at any outstation. The entire process takes a few minutes. The crew then go to the aircraft.
When they enter the flight deck a fairly lengthy ACARS print awaits them. This is essentially a copy of the plan, weather and NOTAMS already in their laptop plus load sheet data, special airport requirements, drift down info, ATIS, a crew list and any other free hand notes. From this printout the Captain types in the route and the F/O does the performance calculations. The whole thing takes a few minutes. The F/O does the walk-round and the Captain signs the tech log. Briefing is done in the normal way and they are ready to go.
Timings for off blocks, take-off, landing and on blocks, plus in-flight reports are all transmitted back to the company automatically by ACARS.
Jet Blue work to a 30 min turnaround. On the ground at Burlington the ACARS sent a complete record of the flight back to the company for filing and then delivered details of the next sector. The Captain typed this in and signed the tech log. The F/O completed the performance calculations, did the walk round and briefed the sector. All pre-flight actions were completed in less than 10 minutes.
Of note is that none of the aircraft carry any books. The library is carried on the pilot’s laptop and [provided they dock it at check-in] all the manuals are entirely up-to-date. Both pilots carry every single company manual, not just the 3 or 4 that we are issued with.
The entire operation was very efficient and stress free.
Conclusion
Jet Blue has a first-class and robust system built from the ground up to make the most of electronic communication technologies. The advantages over a paper-based system are obvious and compelling.