United Continental announced that it is buying 11,000 Apple iPads to replace in-flight operating manuals for pilots. Presently, pilots carry about 40 pounds of flight manuals per pilot on each flight.

United started distributing iPads to pilots earlier this month and plans to have iPad out to all pilots by the end of the year. American and Alaska Air are also moving to dump the heavy flight manuals and equip pilots with iPads.

According to United, moving away from paper to the iPad will do more than increase efficiency and improve safety:

“Each iPad, which weighs less than 1.5 pounds, will replace approximately 38 pounds of paper operating manuals, navigation charts, reference handbooks, flight checklists, logbooks and weather information in a pilot’s flight bag. A conventional flight bag full of paper materials contains an average of 12,000 sheets of paper per pilot. The green benefits of moving to EFBs are two-fold  it significantly reduces paper use and printing, and, in turn, reduces fuel consumption. The airline projects EFBs will save nearly 16 million sheets of paper a year which is equivalent to more than 1,900 trees not cut down. Saving 326,000 gallons of jet fuel a year reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 3,208 metric tons.”

More: How The iPad Is Making The Cockpit Paperless