GIBRALTAR--(Marketwired - May 07, 2015) - WheelTug plc announced today that it will be focusing its efforts at the upcoming Paris Air Show on showing how the WheelTug® e-Taxi system will speed up airline operations by potentially as many as 20 minutes per flight.
As shown in the attached graphic, WheelTug will allow airlines to reduce ground time. The result is much higher fleet utilization for WheelTug-equipped airlines, as well as higher passenger satisfaction with trips that are faster and more reliably on-time. Airports also benefit from higher gate utilization and more aircraft movement with less pollution. WheelTug makes this possible by eliminating the risk of jet ingestion and jet blast, along with reducing or eliminating the reliance on tugs, pushback crews, and even wingmen. WheelTug plans to bundle "TaxiCam" camera systems along with the WheelTug systems, giving the pilots full situational awareness of the outside of the aircraft and its surroundings.
WheelTug will also be showing a detailed comparative simulation at the Paris Air Show, to demonstrate how these benefits add up over the course of a day, for airports (higher throughput), airlines (higher aircraft utilization), and passengers (faster and more predictable flights and on-time performance).
About WheelTug plc
WheelTug plc is developing the WheelTug® aircraft electric drive system which enables aircraft to be electrically driven from the terminal gate to the takeoff runway, and upon landing from runway exit to the gate. This allows improvements in efficiency, flexibility, fuel savings, reduced engine wear, reduce foreign object damage (FOD), as well as substantial reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.
The WheelTug system can be seen in action at http://media.wheeltug.com. The greatest benefit of WheelTug-enabled ground operations is the time that can be saved parking and unloading the aircraft and cooling its brakes before the next flight. Because the system is in the nose gear, there is no interference with cooling of the brakes on the main landing gear, allowing aircraft to reduce turnaround time by as much as 20 minutes per flight. This can lead to a dramatic increase in fleet utilization, as well as passenger satisfaction. WheelTug estimates the total savings from use of its system at well over US$1 million per aircraft per year. WheelTug's systems are being offered to the airlines entirely on a lease, or power-by-the-hour basis, permitting installation on aircraft and operation without any airline capital expenditure.
WheelTug plc is based in Gibraltar. A full listing of WheelTug plc partner companies and airline customers is on the company's website at http://www.wheeltug.gi.
Forward-looking statement at http://www.wheeltug.gi/fls.shtml.
Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2015/5/7/11G040888/Images/wheeltug_plc_fig01_may07-790682178462.jpg
Contact Information:
For more information:
Jan Vana
Director
WheelTug plc
+420 724 276 506
+1 410 419 0082
exec@wheeltug.gi
www.wheeltug.gi
