Lifecycle Cost Drives Lufthansa EFB Decision

Lufthansa is moving to equip its fleet with portable Class 2 electronic flight bags (EFBs) as opposed to Class 3 systems “for the simple reason of total lifecycle cost,” according to Marc Szepan, senior vice president of airline operations solutions with Lufthansa Systems.

Class 2 EFBs, mounted as opposed to installed on the flight deck, represent “the biggest bang for the lowest certification buck,” Szepan said during a March 5 presentation at Avionics Expo 2008 in Amsterdam, co-sponsored by Avionics magazine.

Lufthansa Systems, an IT service provider, is supplying its Lido eFlightBag solution to its airline sister company, using a laptop docking station and touchscreen from Goodrich. Among aircraft equipped with the Class 2 EFB will be Lufthansa’s Airbus A380s, which begin arriving in the summer of 2009. The airline has ordered 15 A380s, which can be provisioned with Class 3 EFBs.

But a Class 3 EFB “needs to get managed, needs to get STC’d [on different aircraft] like an avionics component,” Szepan argued. Removable Class 2 devices can be used by pilots for recurrency training at home; offer a platform that can be used across multiple aircraft types; and support aircraft performance enhancements, Szepan said.