Air France to sign contract for new IAI Taxibot

Air France announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) covering the evaluation of the new Taxibot system developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and TLD Group.

The TaxiBot, a semi-robotic, pilot-controlled vehicle, developed by IAI and manufactured by TLD, is designed to transport airplanes from airport gate to the runway and back, without using the main engines. A significant reduction in fuel consumption is achieved by using it and it can provide a decisive economic advantage to Air France, while also reducing emissions and noise in the airport environment.

This MOU will enable Air France to analyze the potential technical, operational and financial benefits of the Taxibot on its Wide Body fleet operation, at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. Air France, IAI and TLD will form a joint task force to study this system's impact on Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport taxiing flow, as well as TaxiBot's ecological benefits - substantial reduction of CO2 and NOx emission and noise reduction.

This MOU may be extended to testing feasibility with the cooperation of Aéroports de Paris (ADP), on the second quarter of 2015.