AI turnaround plan: Airline to transfer staff to AISATS from Friday

Mumbai: Air India will start the process of shifting more than a third of its employees to a ground-handling joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services on Friday to reduce its staff strength to comply with conditions for a turnaround plan amid opposition from two different unions.
Some Air India employees at the Delhi Airport will move to the new entity from Friday, said a person with the direct knowledge of the matter. "By next week, people in Mumbai will also join the bandwagon," the person added.
Around 12,000 people will become part of the ground-handling joint venture, Air India Singapore Airport Terminal Services (AISATS), if the national carrier manages to successfully carry out the massive transfer of employees.
"We are not sure about the number of employees who will be deputed," said an Air India spokesperson. The unprofitable airline, which looks to focus on its core functions after forming a separate team for ground-handling, is facing teething opposition from unions. AISATS, which looks to take over groundhandling from the airline's whollyowned arm Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL), is already facing resistance.
AISATS, which came into existence by starting operations in Bangalore in 2008, has now spread its wings to Hyderabad and New Delhi. The joint venture together employs around 300 people at Bangalore and Hyderabad international airports. Air India's MD Arvind Jadhav had recently stated that the joint venture would draw its manpower from the national carrier's mammoth workforce.
01/07/11 Manisha Singhal & Manu Balachandran/Economic Times

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Categories: Air India Jul 2011