One of the most recognizable symbols of the traditional pilot’s flight bag is about to become primarily a piece of aviation history. Jeppesen will discontinue its paper chart printing service by October 31, 2026, marking another major step in the aviation industry’s transition toward fully digital flight operations.

The decision does not mean the disappearance of Jeppesen charts, nor does it amount to a complete end to their use on paper. All charts will continue to be available digitally, while customers who still require paper copies will be able to access files for in-house or third-party printing. For business and general aviation users, individual airport charts and approach procedures can also be printed through compatible applications, while the company will even continue supplying its distinctive pre-punched paper designed for Jeppesen binders.

In other words, this is primarily the end of Jeppesen’s industrial printing and distribution of complete paper chart sets, rather than the end of paper chart use altogether.

Jeppesen says the decision reflects aviation’s accelerating shift toward paperless operations, as well as the rising cost of producing, updating and distributing printed material. According to the company, the vast majority of flights worldwide already rely on digital Jeppesen charts, while paper has gradually lost its former role as the primary source of navigation information.

The move symbolically closes a circle that began almost a century ago and is inseparably linked to one pilot – Elrey Borge Jeppesen.

In 1930, Jeppesen was working as an airmail pilot for Boeing Air Transport, one of the predecessors of today’s United Airlines. Flying at the time looked very different from today’s precisely structured IFR operations. Pilots relied heavily on visual navigation, road maps, railway lines, terrain features and their own familiarity with the route.

Jeppesen therefore began systematically collecting information that could help him fly more safely. In a small black notebook, later known as the “Little Black Book,” he recorded details about airports, runway lengths, terrain, obstacles and other information relevant to flight safety.

The story went even further. According to historical records cited by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and Boeing, Jeppesen personally checked some obstacles along his routes, including towers and smokestacks, in an effort to obtain more accurate height information. He even recorded the telephone numbers of people living near certain airports and routes whom he could contact for local weather information.

His notes soon attracted the attention of other pilots, who began asking for copies of their own. In 1934, Jeppesen began commercially selling his charts and Airway Manual, a date now regarded as the beginning of the Jeppesen company.

From what began as a relatively simple pilot’s notebook gradually emerged a system that would, decades later, become almost synonymous with professional IFR navigation. Jeppesen charts helped standardize the way airport, en-route and procedural information was presented to pilots, while their distinctive graphical format became familiar to generations of aviators around the world.

By 1947, Jeppesen was working with the U.S. Civil Aviation Authority on the development of standardized instrument approach procedures and the establishment of the National Flight Data Center. Over time, the company expanded far beyond the paper chart business, and Jeppesen sold it to publishing group Times Mirror in 1961.

Almost four decades later came another major change. Boeing acquired Jeppesen from Times Mirror in 2000 for approximately $1.5 billion, bringing the company into Boeing’s portfolio of digital and navigation services.

That chapter, however, has since ended as well. In 2025, Boeing decided to sell Jeppesen, ForeFlight and parts of its Digital Aviation Solutions business to investment firm Thoma Bravo in a transaction valued at $10.55 billion. The deal was completed on November 3, 2025, after which Jeppesen and ForeFlight began operating as a standalone company under the Jeppesen ForeFlight name.

That combination is particularly symbolic in the context of today’s decision to move away from paper. Jeppesen, a company that for decades was virtually synonymous with thick binders filled with navigation charts, now operates alongside ForeFlight, one of the applications that helped replace paper-filled pilot bags with tablets.

Today, Jeppesen charts are used by more than one million pilots, while the company’s navigation data is relied upon by airlines, business aviation operators and a wide range of avionics manufacturers. Every 28 days, Jeppesen processes data from nearly 200 countries and territories, converting large volumes of changes into standardized navigation databases and charts used around the world.

Paper charts have lost importance particularly quickly in recent years with the widespread adoption of Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) systems. Instead of heavy pilot bags filled with manuals, airport charts, SIDs, STARs and approach procedures, the same material is now carried on tablets or integrated cockpit devices. Jeppesen charts are available through the company’s own digital products as well as through applications such as ForeFlight.

Digitalization is also no longer simply a matter of convenience. U.S. FAA guidance allows EFB systems to replace documentation traditionally carried in paper form. Within the European regulatory framework, EASA treats applications containing electronic en-route, approach, airport and other aeronautical charts as typical EFB applications, subject to appropriate requirements concerning hardware, procedures, operational approval and risk assessment.

The disappearance of paper therefore does not mean the disappearance of redundancy. In professional operations, the transition to EFB requires operators to manage risks related to device failure, electrical power, access to current data and the continued availability of required flight information. As a result, backup capability in a modern cockpit is increasingly provided by a second independent electronic device or system rather than an additional set of paper charts.

Jeppesen will terminate its remaining paper subscriptions from November 1, 2026, while customers whose subscriptions were paid beyond the end of the service will receive a refund or credit for the unused portion. For subscriptions expiring between September 1 and October 31, the company will no longer automatically issue standard renewal invoices, meaning customers who wish to retain paper service until the final day will need to arrange this separately.

The date October 31, 2026 therefore will not be the day the last paper Jeppesen chart disappears from a cockpit. They will remain for years in pilot bags, flight schools, offices and private collections, and they will still be printable wherever there is a need for them.

After all, there are few pilots – even among younger generations – who have not encountered the familiar “Jepps” at some point in their flying careers, if nowhere else then at least during training. Over the decades, the name has grown beyond a mere product and become an almost cult-like synonym for aviation navigation, instrument procedures and flight planning. Generations of pilots learned to read SIDs, STARs and approach procedures using Jeppesen charts, leaving their binders, distinctive format and graphical presentation deeply embedded in pilot culture.

Their status is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that old Jeppesen charts are no longer necessarily just outdated operational material. They are traded among aviation enthusiasts and collectors, while some examples – particularly charts depicting closed airports, discontinued procedures or especially interesting periods in aviation history – have acquired collectible and, in some circles, almost cult status. Material once designed to be routinely updated, removed from binders and replaced with new pages can today end up framed on a wall or preserved as part of an aviation collection.

That is why it is difficult to overlook the symbolism of Jeppesen’s decision. A company whose story began when a pilot nearly a century ago started writing down the information he needed to fly more safely is now ending the printing of the product that ultimately grew from those notes. Digital charts have long since taken over everyday cockpit operations, but nearly a century of tradition and the status the Jepps have earned among pilots will not disappear on a single date.

The “Jepps” are not disappearing from aviation – but their traditional paper form is definitively becoming part of history.