Air India Express has become India’s first airline to introduce robotic technology to disinfect and clean aircraft interiors.
The airline has partnered with ground handling agency AISATS for cleaning and disinfection of aircraft interiors using a UV Robotic device fitted with a ‘UV Disinfection Lamping System’. The UVC rays of the 254-nanometre wavelength emitted by the device break apart germ DNA, leaving it unable to function or reproduce.
An Air India Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft was the first to be disinfected with this technology at Delhi Airport earlier this month. The airline plans to extend this cabin cleaning and disinfection technology to all its aircraft operating on its nationwide network.
The UV Robotic cleaning device is fitted with collapsible arms specially designed to disinfect aircraft seats, under-seat areas, inside overhead baggage compartment, aisle ceiling, window panels, cockpit instrumentation area, overhead switch panel and interiors from viruses and bacteria. This ensures that surfaces commonly touched by both passengers and crew are disinfected and kept clean.
A known disinfectant for air, water, and nonporous surfaces, UVC radiation, has effectively been used for decades to reduce the spread of bacteria, and UVC lamps are often called “germicidal” lamps.
The UV-C disinfection system technology used by AISATS has been tested and approved at laboratories of the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration.