Carriers loath to ceding ground

New Delhi: Private airlines have asked the government for permission to partly retain ground handling facilities even after the new policy comes into effect in 2009.
The new ground handling policy allows only three agencies - the airport operator, subsidiary companies of Air India, Indian or their JVs, and any other ground handling service provider selected through competitive bidding on a revenue sharing basis - to conduct ground handling services after January 1, 2009.
These restrictions would be in place across six metro airports - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
In a meeting chaired by the civil aviation secretary Ashok Chawla, CEOs of private airlines have sought permission to retain ground handling activities at least till the customer checks in. But the airlines’ plea is unlikely to be accepted just yet.
Once the policy comes into effect, functions such as loading, unloading and delivery of baggage from the aircraft; cabin cleaning; delivery of passengers from terminal to tarmac and vice-versa - all of these would go out of the private airlines’ purview.
26/10/07 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports Oct 2007, General Aviation Oct 2007