Indigo announces new disposable mid-cabin exit door to hasten passenger exit
After introducing a three-way exit strategy to empty an aircraft quickly, India's cheapest airline Indigo has come with another gem to ensure faster exit of passengers post a flight.
The airline is now planning to introduce mid aircraft exit doors that open by default as soon as the landing gears touch the tarmac. "The doors on both sides of the aircraft will pop out and the passengers sitting right next to them will be thrown out along with the door. Rest of the passengers can then exit the aircraft well before the plane comes to a complete stop," an Indigo cargo manager said on condition of us paying him. He demanded the full payment upfront and asked this reporter to stand in a random queue to talk to him.
"A tractor will then move around to collect the passengers who have jumped and they will then be dumped into the luggage carousel. They will then exit the apron area along with their luggage through the luggage collection carousel," he added. The system has been put on trial on Adani run airports across the country. These airports were chosen as they already have an integrated facility where baggage and passengers are treated alike.
"By the time the aircraft comes to a complete halt, only the pilots will be inside the aircraft as everyone would have exited by then. Any passengers staying back will be charged an additional convenience fee in addition to being force fed any remaining Indigo meals on that specific aircraft.
Passengers will have to pay an additional fee to be collected from the apron area. Whoever does not pay will have to walk all the way up to the arrival gate or pay additional fees to be picked up by the Indigo tractors.
Indigo is expecting a further improvement in its on-time performance with this move. "Unless we move passengers as fast as cargo out of the plane, we will never be able to improve our on time performance so this is a major move by our airline. I expect the results to kick in in the short term itself, said Lobh Kumar Cheap Miserly Officer, Indigo. He was waiting to board an Air Vistara flight to Bangalore.
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