Friday, September 25, 2015

Ground-handling at Chandigarh Airport: High Court holds contract given by AAI to AIATSL ‘unreasonable’

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday held that the contract given by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL) for entire ground-handling services at the new terminal of the Chandigarh International Airport, ousting private airlines to self-handle their services, as “patently illegal and unreasonable”.
Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain made it clear that 13 aircraft operators’ aviation security functions specified by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security would be performed by the bonafide whole-time employees of the private airlines. And the other ground-handling services could be outsourced by private airlines.
The directions came while allowing the petition filed by the Federation of Indian Airlines and some other airlines including Indigo.
The court observed, “It is also not denied by the respondents that the practice of self-handling of the ground-handling services by the airlines has been continuing even at the metropolitan airports, maybe because of the order of the Supreme Court.”
25/09/15 Indian Express
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