Originally Posted by
PV_Premier
As I sit here listening to the dot matrix pounding away at gate A2 in STL this question crossed my mind. Surely there's a reason the airlines haven't moved to compact laser jet printers for printouts at the gate...is is just because the pages stay connected without a staple?
Why spend $$$ fixing a system that isn't broken?
Dot matrix is the already installed system that works well, the supplies for it cost less than those for laser printers, definitely lower maintenance costs, does multi-part forms, and probably a whole lot more reasons to keep them.
Someone in this thread mentioned sending the info to crew devices. With all the fuss about using electronics on planes, concerns about confidentiality of data sent via wi-fi, whether or not the wi-fi works, the need to insure every device has sufficient battery power for the duration of the flight, etc. - what incentive does the airline have to move away from a printout on a clipboard? Easier and quicker to read/scan larger type on paper, and nobody will question whether it will interfere with the plane controls (see any number of threads about that here on FT).