New ground handling policy at six airports after 30 June

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry plans to go ahead with the implementation of a new ground handling services policy at six key airports after the 30 June deadline passes, discounting the possibility of an extension of the cut-off date sought by airlines.
The new policy mandates that airlines outsource ground handling at the airports to private operators selected for the job. Its implementation has already been delayed.
With the June-end deadline approaching, civil aviation secretary M. Madhavan Nambiar reviewed the status of its implementation on Monday with top airport operators and National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India.
Under the new policy, only Air India, the airport operator and a third private operator will be allowed to provide ground handling services from July.
The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which runs the Kolkata and Chennai airports, Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore International Airport Ltd, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Pvt. Ltd and Air India’s chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav.
The officials reviewed preparations of both the airport operators and the national carrier to implement the policy, said two senior government officials who didn’t want to be named. “It has been decided to put it in place from 1 July for all metro airport operators,” one of the two officials said.
Mumbai and New Delhi have already have selected at least one ground handler while the new Bangalore airport works with a single operator.
Chennai and Kolkata airports are expected to complete the process of selecting ground handlers by early June from among 11 bidders. Air India, which tied up with Singapore Air Terminal Services, or Sats, is also expected to be ready. Airport operators see ground handling as an additional revenue source. The combined annual revenue from ground handling services at the six airports is estimated at Rs500 crore.
26/05/09 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Airports May 2009, Indian Aviation- In General May 2009