Celebi Aviation to bring taxibots to Indian airports; plans up to €45 million investment

NEW DELHI: Leading ground handling service provider Celebi Aviation will invest up to 45 million euros in bringing taxibots to Indian airports. An environment-friendly taxiing solution, taxibots are currently used at Delhi airport and Celebi plans to bring them to key airports of the country. Celebi has entered into a partnership with KSU Aviation which has signed an exclusive sales agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries & TLD to deploy these units across the country.
“The pilot-controlled semi-automatic taxibots are designed to significantly reduce fuel consumption by 85% and foreign object damage (FOD) by 50%, thereby ensuring safety and lesser congestion at the airports. Use of taxibots will also bring down the emission of carbon dioxide and other noxious gases by 85%, and check noise pollution at the airports by 60%,” Celebi said in a statement.
To begin with, the company recently signed an agreement with Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to commercially operate taxibots for seven years. Each of these units cost up to 1.5 million euros. As a startup, the global ground handling provider has invested about 6.5 million euros in this business as a consortium with KSU Aviation.
The two taxibots currently deployed at the Delhi airport are responsible for towing narrow body aircraft from the terminal gate to the take-off point, with the aircraft's engines turned off. The company will bring in three more taxibots units very soon as a part of the agreement with DIAL.
Celebi Aviation CEO (India) Murali Ramachandran said: "Celebi entered India with a vision of bringing global operational standards in the country’s aviation market. We are very glad to have collaborated with KSU for the introduction of Taxibots at the Delhi International Airport, and being a part of this revolutionary green initiative. We are also thankful to DGCA for being extremely supportive of the initiative. We are looking forward to partner with other key airports of India and are already in talks with a few of them who are very keen to bring this technology offer into their respective ecosystems."
Celebi has been in India for more than a decade now and has been carrying out ground handling operations at the major airports of the country — Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Ahmedabad and Kannur, and is planning to expand its operations into other airports.