New ground rules from Jan despite lobbying by airlines

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry has decided to roll out the new ground-handling policy in January 2011 despite hectic lobbying by private airlines, ushering in a quiet revolution in quality of support services at airports across the country.
The new policy will eliminate deployment of outsourced manpower and restrict the number of service providers operating at airports -- improving service standards, safety and security. In the bargain , private airlines will lose their right to carry out their own ground-handling , instead hiring national carrier Air India or independent agencies nominated by airport operators.
The value of ground-handling business at airports across the country is estimated to be Rs 1,000 crore, and is now divided among a large number of small agencies. While private airlines are still dragging their feet, the civil aviation ministry recently convened a meeting of all airport operators and emphasised that there was no question of further delay in the implementation of the policy.
The meeting was attended by representatives of GMR that runs Delhi and Hyderabad airports, GVK (Mumbai & Bangalore airports), Cochin International Airport Ltd and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which runs dozens of airports across the country, including the ones at Chennai, Kolkata, Goa and Jaipur, said two officials from aviation ministry.
The updated guidelines on groundhandling were approved by Parliament in 2007, but private airlines have been successfully putting it off year after year, saying they are not ready for the switchover.
16/11/10 Anindya Upadhyay & G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Nov 2010, Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2010, New Nov 2010