New ground handling policy postponed

New Delhi: Buckling under the pressure of civil aviation industry, the Centre is not likely to implement the new Ground Handling Policy from January 1 2009.
According to well informed sources in the Union Civil Aviation, the matter would be taken up by Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
"Civil Aviation Minister will take up deferment of new ground handling policy till 31 March," sources told to this website’s newspaper.
The implementation was postponed after the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) made a presentation to the Civil Aviation Ministry recently, arguing that it would be forced to retrench nearly 8,000 employees currently on the payrolls of Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Indigo, GoAir etc if the government implements the new ground handling policy. Besides these, there are also a few thousand people hired as contract labour who could be affected.
If the Cabinet defers it, then the New Ground Handling Policy was expected to be implemented from April 1, 2008. Ground handling activities broadly mean the handling of passengers and baggage at the airport, loading or unloading of aircraft, activities relating to the ramp, refuelling and cleaning of aircraft and push-back facilities.The annual revenue generated from ground handling operations is estimated at about Rs 10 billion currently.
20/11/08 Express Buzz

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008