Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport in collaboration with IndiGo innovated on the airline’s unique ‘Three-Point Disembarkation System’ on December 6. The innovation supervised by the airside operations team of the airport involved the use of a passenger boarding bridge (aka aerobridge) and two ramps in place of three ramps – two forward and one rear, used by IndiGo previously. The airline in an aviation sector first step globally, had introduced this system to mark its 16th anniversary.

IndiGo on June 14, 2023, had successfully carried out the three-point disembarkation at Mangaluru International Airport for the first time. The difference was that the airline on that occasion had used three ramps. On December 6, flight 6e 6162 arriving from Bengaluru with 227 passengers docked with passenger boarding bridge 10. The airline ground staff attached two ramps – one forward and one at the rear and facilitated the speedy disembarkation of the passengers.

“The airport remains committed to enhancing passenger experience and will strongly collaborate with any new ideas that airline partners bring to the fore to enhance such experiences,” the airport spokesperson said. This collaboration is also in line with the vision of promoters of the airport to be a vital cog in nation building as it enables the airline partners improve their operational efficiencies and punctuality and boost their one-time performance, the spokesperson pointed.

IndiGo in August 2022 started this new disembarkation procedure on its A320 and A321 fleet for flights arriving at remote stands at Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru airports to begin with. The airline has since gone on to progressively deploy this disembarkation system across its network. The cabin crew make the necessary announcement to inform passengers at the time of deboarding when this disembarkation system is made operational at their respective destination.