IndiGo to fight mosquito menace with swatters on board

In a bid to control the menace posed by mosquitoes to passengers in flights, IndiGo has decided to have electronic swatters on its planes. Reportedly, each plane will have two battery-operated, racquet-shaped mosquito 'bats' or swatters on flights from this month. The cabin crew members will use the same inside the flight to kill the insects, except during the time the plane is refuelling. The batteries of these gadgets will be changed at airports, according to The Economic Times report. 

An IndiGo official said that flights were delayed and there have been many passenger complaints due to mosquitoes. The airlines also said that before departure of the flights preventive measures such as placing mosquito repellent patches and spraying approved insecticides before departure are done on a regular basis. “The electronic bats [swatters] will be used only in exceptional circumstances and not as a regular practice,” an IndiGo spokesperson told ET.

Kolkata, Lucknow, Varanasi, and Chandigarh are some of the airports where the mosquito menace is prominent. To deal with the situation, airlines have used regulator-approved repellents in the airports as well.

A video of mosquitoes problem inside an IndiGo aircraft was posted online by Saurabh Rai, a cardiologist, that went viral recently. A PTI report said that the airliner's staff reportedly manhandled and offloaded him when he lodged a complaint about the same.

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Rai said that the IndiGo crew members did not arrange for any mosquito repellents after complaining instead they said that mosquitoes are all over India, “so will you leave the country?”.  he also alleged that the airline staff had caught him by his collar and have dragged him down from the flight after forcing him to delete all the videos and photographs that he had taken inside the flight.

The airline has denied all charges of manhandling and more by Rai. After this incident Aviation minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted "I have ordered an inquiry into the incident of offloading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by IndiGo at Lucknow airport." 

IndiGo has about 40% of the domestic market share and it flies around 1,000 flights per day. The airline's 163 planes connects 42 domestic and eight international destinations.