Airline staff raise a stink over foreign ground-handling firms

* In 2001, airport ground-handling licences were granted to foreign companies, including one called DNATA. The parliamentary cabinet committee later withdrew the licence after it learnt that DNATA had nearly 100 retired Pakistani air force officials on its roll.
* Among the companies selected to do ground-handling in Mumbai airport are Celebi, a Turkish ground-handling company, and NAS, a Kuwaiti company. Very little is known of these two firms as they do not have presence outside their countries. Is it a sound decision, especially as the defence minister has warned that "the next terror attack could come from air''? Another firm cleared is Menzies, an European ground-handling company. But, only two weeks ago, the UK department of transport confiscated its licence for security lapses.
* These foreign companies have engaged several foreign nationals, including Bangladeshis, as employees. In case of Indian employees, verification of character and antecedent is carried out before recruiting them. How can that be done in case of foreign nationals?
* The government does not allow foreigners to hold position of security chiefs in airlines but it has allowed foreign ground-handling companies with foreigners in India's airports.
These are some of the points on security concerns raised in a letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by Air India employees protesting against a government policy on ground-handling. Ground-handling jobs cover functions like passenger check-in, aircraft handling, fuelling, cleaning, mooring, baggage handling and boarding/deplaning passengers.
The matter pertains to a Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) circular on ground-handling in Indian airports, scheduled for implementation from January 2009. The circular says airport operators will give the contract for ground-handling to three select companies-which could include foreign ones -and airlines will have to choose any of the three for their ground-handling jobs. Currently, multiple agencies do ground-handling at Indian airports and the policy aims to limit the number of operators to three for security reasons.
16/12/08 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008, Foreign Dec 2008, Safety Dec 2008