Ethiopian Airlines partners with Aero HygenX for deployment of autonomous UV-C disinfecting solution

Ethiopian Airlines Group and Aero HygenX executives, inventors of RAY – an autonomous aircraft sanitization robot – signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlining a plan for fleetwide deployment and regional marketing of Aero HygenX’s autonomous UV-C light disinfecting robot. The signing of this MoU marks a first foray into the African market for Aero HygenX, a Canadian technology company taking aviation by storm with its safe, efficient, and chemical free solution designed for aircraft cabins and rail cars. Ethiopian Airlines has become the first African carrier to roll out the new technology that takes aviation safety to the next level. It is the intent of the two parties to establish local final assembly capabilities for Aero HygenX’s autonomous UV-C disinfecting robot “RAY”, thus creating local employment opportunities and expediting rollout of the chemical-free, pathogen-killing solution for Ethiopian Airlines. The MoU further sets out to foster exchange of expertise and ideas between Aero HygenX and the Ethiopian Airlines Innovation Hub, which leads all innovation activities across Ethiopian Airlines. The purpose of the Innovation Hub collaboration is to further optimize the product and determine where else in the retravel chain, and indeed the wider region, Aero HygenX’s leading disinfection technology can be useful.

RAY has the ability to disinfect a narrow body aircraft (such as a B737 or A320) in as little as seven minutes and can also be used to treat in lavatories so airlines can fully sanitize aircraft after every flight. Unlike competing disinfection robots, the RAY unit does not require a crew member to move it through the cabin. Furthermore, RAY can be optimized for various aircraft types and comes equipped with HygenX Stream, a customizable software that records and transmits usage data wirelessly to the cloud, providing valuable system health monitoring and status updates to the operator. UV-C light has been used to effectively disinfect food, water, and air for decades. It is proven to destroy the pathogens that cause MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV1, Ebola, and SARS-CoV2 (and other serious viruses.)