NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport has become the first airport in the world to have completed 1,000 movements of sustainable taxing of aircraft with TaxiBot, which is a semi-robotic hybrid special purpose vehicle. The service has helped the airport in significantly reducing carbon emission and saving fuel.
IGI is the only airport in the world which adopted this green taxiing solution in May 2019.
TaxiBots had helped in reducing around 532 tonnes of Carbon at the airport which in turn saved 2.14 lakh litres of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), the quantity supposed to be burned by the aircraft during taxiing, said the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on Thursday.
“TaxiBot’s also facilitated in reducing the risk of foreign object debris (FOD) damage to the aircraft during its ground movement and taxiing noise at the airport. It is resourceful to ATC as TaxiBot offers faster apron clearance and assist airlines in reducing turnaround time for its ground operations,” it said.
The adoption of TaxiBot was one of the DIAL’s strategic initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, as part of its objective of becoming a ‘net zero carbon emission airport’ by 2030.
“Delhi Airport is one of the leading airports globally in terms of adopting environmental sustainability-related initiatives. With the implementation and continuous use of TaxiBot, DIAL continues its journey of making Delhi Airport one of the most sustainable airports globally. The reduction in carbon emissions by use of TaxiBot establishes DIAL as an environment-friendly organisation. This is a major milestone not only for DIAL but also for the aviation sector globally, in terms of promoting and adopting alternative and green taxiing solutions,” said DIAL chief executive officer (CEO) Videh Kumar Jaipuriar.
At present, two TaxiBots are operational with three airlines and their numbers at Delhi Airport will go up to 15 over the next four years.
TaxiBot is semi-robotic towbarless aircraft movement equipment developed by Israel Aerospace Industries.
The 800 horsepower (hp) hybrid-electric engine, controlled by the pilot from the cockpit using the regular pilot controls can move an aircraft from the terminal gate to the take-off point (taxi-out phase) and return it to the gate after landing (taxi-in phase).