Ground handling clouds loom over new Hyderabad airport

Hyderabad: With just two days to go for the opening, the new Hyderabad airport project has hit a rough patch with the domestic airlines and the airport operator, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL), clashing over the ground handling of aircraft.
The airlines, led by Jet Airways, want to handle the aircraft themselves since this is cheaper. But GHIAL want the airlines to use the ground handlers appointed by it.
On Thursday the airport operator wrote a letter to Jet asking it to choose between one of the two ground handlers appointed by it. If Jet fails to comply, its flights will not be handled by anyone, the letter added.
In reply, Jet Airways chief executive Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said the airline was not comfortable with the ground handling rates and that the airlines will continue to operate from the old airport if the impasse is not resolved. The cargo handling at the new Shamshabad airport costs four times the airline’s expenses at the Begumpet airport, Mr Prock-Schauer said.
GHIAL had awarded the contract for ground handling to two companies, Menzies Bobba and AI Sats, a joint venture between Air India and Singapore Airlines. Airline operators have to choose between the two players. The issue has been hanging fire for the past several months and not a single airline has signed up with the two concessionaires yet.
14/03/08 Cuckoo Paul/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Mar 2008, New Mar 2008