Whether at the gate,
in the belly of an aircraft or on the tarmac, American Airlines aircraft
technicians are now equipped with ruggedized, wireless technology
solutions that put up-to-the-minute information at their fingertips. These
new technology solutions bring information once located in various manuals
and documents on hard-wired PCs direct to American’s technicians in the
field via American’s new proprietary Web application, eLineMaintenance.
“At American, we know that equipping our employees with cutting-edge
technology solutions, empowers them to provide the best possible service
to our passengers,” said Monte Ford, Senior Vice President and Chief
Information Officer at American Airlines. “The availability of this
ruggedized hardware that is right for our environment, coupled with the
internal development of an efficient application, is allowing our aircraft
technicians and ground team to be better informed and connected.
Regardless of where they need to be to get the job done, this solution
will add value to our operation.”

“When our ground team is more efficient, our passengers benefit, and as a
result our aircraft technicians are embracing this technology,” said Danny
Martinez, American’s Vice President of Maintenance and Engineering Line-
Maintenance. “Having every single piece of the airplane’s manuals,
log-books and the latest information from vendors and regulatory agencies
available at the technicians’ fingertips gives our team immediate,
accurate access to critical information while servicing our fleet.”

Today, aircraft technicians can access work orders on their ruggedized
laptop PCs directly from the ramp, track progress and maintain constant
communication with other team members. In the past, a trip to the
ready-rooms was required to access information on a shared desktop
computer or with hard- copy manuals.

“It’s not just a laptop, it’s an assistant,” said Jose Liscano, an
American Airlines aircraft technician at Miami International Airport. “It
provides the information I need to troubleshoot any problem on the
aircraft, right at the aircraft.”

eLineMaintenance was developed by American Airlines Maintenance &
Engineering (M&E) and Information Technology Services (ITS) teams.
American’s M&E team at Miami International Airport beta-tested this new
technology solution, and was the first location to deploy the rugged
notebooks. Today, eLineMaintenance is being deployed throughout all of
American Airline’s M&E operations in the United States and the rollout
will continue during the rest of the year.

“Our line maintenance team pulled together with our development team,
contributing, testing and implementing an application for technology that
has yielded a winning solution,” added Ford. “Without the interaction of
our teams, we would not have been able to develop such a logical and
useful tool.”

The rugged, wireless hardware solution was chosen because of its ability
to withstand the day-to-day lifestyle of an aircraft technician, who may
be dealing with weather or other adverse conditions. The solution takes
advantage of Sprint’s 3G wireless network to link ground personnel to the
back-end infrastructure via a constant, secure and reliable connection.
This uninterrupted connection to data can reduce maintenance-related delay
time.
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