Expect ground handling chaos at Chennai on New Year’s Day

Chennai: Airline companies are concerned about an impending chaos from January when ground handling operations at the Chennai airport are taken over by a private firm. Although the company has set up an office at the airport, it is yet to deploy any equipment or manpower for the operations.
The private company — Bhadra Ground Handling Services — won the contract for handling ground operations in seven airports in the country, including Chennai. This was following a Civil Aviation Ministry notification in 2007, which, citing security reasons, said ground handling should be entrusted to a single agency other than the Airports Authority of India and Air India.
As a result, in Chennai, several private agencies that handle ground operations for different airlines at the airport would have to withdraw their staff from January. This has put airline companies in a fix. They are skeptical of Bhadra’s ability to muster its resources and kick off operations from January 1.
Airline officials said that with just about half a month to go, Bhadra has not even started signing contracts with them.
14/12/10 Mamta Todi/ExpressBuzz

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Categories: Airports Dec 2010