New ground handling policy yet to take off

Mumbai: After being deferred thrice last year, the new ground handling policy, which was due in January 2010, will now take at least six months to come into effect, say sources in the civil aviation ministry. Till then, private carriers can carry on with their individual ground handling at major airports. The ground handling market is pegged at Rs 2,000 crore annually. Under the new policy, only flag carrier Air India, the airport operator and a third private operator will be allowed to provide ground handling services.
Ground handling includes general administration, baggage, freight and mail handling, loading and unloading of aircraft and transport of crew, passengers and baggage, fuel and oil handling and catering services.
The new policy has already been approved by the Parliament in 2007 but has been deferred time and again due to opposition from airline operators who currently manage their own services. Airlines feel outsourcing the services will render thousands working with them unemployed and would also increase their cost by atleast 30%.
At a time when cost saving is considered a saving grace for airlines, outsourcing ground handling is unacceptable. Even airport operators like the Airports Authority of India see ground handling as an additional revenue source. The combined annual revenue from ground handling services at the six metro airports like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad etc is estimated at Rs 500-600 crore.
24/02/10 Shaheen Mansuri/Financial Express

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Categories: Airports Feb 2010