Delhi Airport brings first TaxiBots in aviation industry

Hyderabad: Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a GMR Group led consortium on Monday said it is set to roll out thecommercial operations of Taxibots at the Delhi Airport.

For this, DIAL hadentered an agreement with KSU Aviation Pvt Ltd, the operator of Taxibots.

India's low-cost airline, Spicejetis the first carrier toutilise this technology, starting from May 28, 2019.

In the initial phase, two TaxiBots are going to be operational and over a period of four years the count will be brought up to 15.DIAL informed that with this launch, it marks the first

commercial operation of TaxiBot in the global aviation industry.

TaxiBot is a semi-autonomous vehicle developed by Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI).

This enables aircraft taxiing without running the aircraft engines. The technology aims to reserve the use of aircraft engines, which aids in noise-reduction,reduced fuel cost and wear and tear of aircraft brakes.

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL, said: "TaxiBots are a technological innovation in the aviation space. We are proud to be the world's first recipients of this technology and commence its commercial operations."

Further he said that the implementation of this system will save around 213 liters of fuel per flight.

"This converts into a potential saving of $35 million annually for domestic carriers at Delhi Airport alone," he added.

DIAL said that it had been conducting trials from the last eight months to assess the operational viability and safety of TaxiBots. The trials included stakeholders like DGCA, ATC and Airlines.