Air India’s ground-handling JV with SATS gets stuck

New Delhi: The new ground-handling policy that is to be operationalised by July first week seems to be stuck with one of the key service providers at airports, National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), hitting an air pocket in its talks with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS), a global ground handling firm over setting up a joint venture.
The JV, in which NACIL will hold a majority 51 per cent, was conceived to be one of the three mandatory ground-handling service providers at the six metro airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad besides other greenfield airports that may come up in the future.
According to Air India executives, SATS has been insisting that the joint venture be signed with its newly-formed subsidiary firm, SATS Investment Private Limited. NACIL, on its part is reluctant to sign the JV with a SATS subsidiary that has been capitalised with just $2 and set up barely a month ago. “This violates the entire tendering process since SATS was selected based on its experience and its own financials,” a top executive told The Indian Express.
“The government had approved a JV between NACIL and SATS and not with the latter’s subsidiary,” the executives said.
02/06/09 Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express

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Categories: Airports Jun 2009, Foreign Jun 2009, NACIL Jun 2009