IndiGo ramps up operational efficiency with 3-way disembarkation on 16th anniversary

The country’s largest carrier IndiGo began the rollout of a three-point disembarkation service on select flights on Thursday.

Claiming it to be the first-of-its-kind service globally, airline officials said it would help reduce disembarkation time for passengers by five minutes. The new process will be carried out from two ramps placed near the forward exit and one at the rear.

“We believe in innovation and are proud of having introduced this three-way disembarkation process that we are launching on our 16th anniversary,” airline CEO, Ronojoy Dutta told reporters at Delhi airport.

“Once a flight reaches the parking stand, passengers want to exit the cabin as fast as they can. We were taking 12-13 minutes to vacate an Airbus 321. With this new process, it will only take 7-8 minutes to disembark the flight,” the airline’s executive vice president, Sanjeev Ramdas told Business Today.

The facility will initially be offered on those Airbus 320 and 321 flights arriving at remote stands or parking stands not connected by an aerobridge in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru before it is gradually extended to all the domestic flights operated by the carrier. The airline said it had conducted several trial runs of the service in the past 45 days and had received favourable feedback from passengers.

The IndiGo cabin crew shall make the necessary announcements to inform customers about the exit points at the time of deboarding.

As a low-cost carrier (LCC), the three-way deboarding facility will help IndiGo to further cut down on the turnaround time for a flight. The turnaround time means the sequential preparation of an aircraft for the next flight from its arrival at a destination to its departure. On a narrowbody like an Airbus 321 or Boeing 737, this may vary from half an hour for an LCC to one hour for a full-service carrier (FSC).

IndiGo is now looking at offering a similar service during embarkation.

At a time of rising fuel costs and a depreciating rupee, Indian carriers are looking at innovative ways of maximising operational efficiencies. LCC Akasa Air which will be commencing operations on August 7 has indicated that it will be leveraging technologies in areas such as reducing wait time at airport check-in counters and ensuring quicker luggage arrival.

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