New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS): With a view to enhance operational efficiency, IndiGo airline has introduced sensor technology for faster and accurate scanning of life vests on the aircraft.

Life vests are mandatory safety equipment to be carried on all passenger aircraft in commercial service. These vests require periodic checks to ensure adequate numbers are available on board, and that they are in serviceable condition.

Manual inspection of all vests would normally take 90-120 minutes, depending on the type of aircraft. With the introduction of sensor tech, this time has been cut down to 3-4 minutes per aircraft.

As per the airline, this innovation is resulting in huge time savings across India's largest fleet of 300 aircraft, housing more than 53,000 life vests. These time savings will result in better fleet utilisation and reduced waiting time for passengers.

Elaborating further, Neetan Chopra, Chief Digital and Information Officer, IndiGo, said: "At IndiGo, we are constantly exploring new avenues of utilising technology to drive innovation and enhance operational efficiency. Developed completely in-house, this sensor-based inspection process for life vests enables us to prepare aircraft faster for the next flight. We will continue to push into new digital and innovative frontiers and introduce more such solutions to enhance operational efficiency and provide on-time, hassle-free, and affordable travel experience to our customers."

Sensor technology refers to an automated data collection technology that reads the tag which is there on the life vests which in turn helps in identifying, tracking, and locating the tagged life vest. With the introduction of this technology, IndiGo will be able to maintain life vest expiry date and availability on a real-time basis.