Airport ground-handling companies like Menzies Aviation, Cambata, Celebi and Indo-Thai Airport Management Services have cried foul at the aviation ministry’s proposed move to allow all domestic carriers to do self-handling that include baggage loading, cleaning of aircraft, passenger check-in and ground transport.
The companies have claimed that the proposal differs from the present one under which they had bid for the airport services and invested about Rs 1,500 crore. They collectively employ 16,700 people and handle over 142,000 flights annually at various airports.
“Ground handling entails substantial investments and operating costs. Any increase in supply beyond a point will lead to the environment becoming unreasonable and will eventually be counter-productive as such a scenario will not be sustainable and will lead to a collapse eventually,” ground-handling companies have told the aviation ministry.
Departing from the principles of the ground handling policy notified in 2007, the aviation ministry has proposed to remove cap on number of ground-handling companies at metro airports allowing both scheduled and charter air operators to undertake pre-flight departure activities.
The incumbent ground-handlers have made strong pitch for retaining the present rule that restricts number of such agencies to three at metro airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
The 2007 policy required air-carriers to outsource ground-handling services to only three authorised agencies – the airport operator itself or its joint venture partner, subsidiary companies of the national carrier Air India or their joint ventures specialised in ground handling services and any other ground handling service providers selected through competitive bidding on the revenue sharing basis by the airport operator.
This was challenged by the federation of Indian airlines (FIA), airline industry trade body, in the court and as a result could not be implemented in totality.
While the aviation ministry has been locked in legal battle with FIA defending the 2007 policy in the Supreme Court, the draft aviation policy released on October 30 this year took opposite position and proposed self-handling for domestic carriers.
Ever since the litigation began, the ministry maintained that the decision to cap number of ground-handlers had been taken on security grounds.
06/12/15 Nirbhay Kumar/mydigitalfc
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The companies have claimed that the proposal differs from the present one under which they had bid for the airport services and invested about Rs 1,500 crore. They collectively employ 16,700 people and handle over 142,000 flights annually at various airports.
“Ground handling entails substantial investments and operating costs. Any increase in supply beyond a point will lead to the environment becoming unreasonable and will eventually be counter-productive as such a scenario will not be sustainable and will lead to a collapse eventually,” ground-handling companies have told the aviation ministry.
Departing from the principles of the ground handling policy notified in 2007, the aviation ministry has proposed to remove cap on number of ground-handling companies at metro airports allowing both scheduled and charter air operators to undertake pre-flight departure activities.
The incumbent ground-handlers have made strong pitch for retaining the present rule that restricts number of such agencies to three at metro airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
The 2007 policy required air-carriers to outsource ground-handling services to only three authorised agencies – the airport operator itself or its joint venture partner, subsidiary companies of the national carrier Air India or their joint ventures specialised in ground handling services and any other ground handling service providers selected through competitive bidding on the revenue sharing basis by the airport operator.
This was challenged by the federation of Indian airlines (FIA), airline industry trade body, in the court and as a result could not be implemented in totality.
While the aviation ministry has been locked in legal battle with FIA defending the 2007 policy in the Supreme Court, the draft aviation policy released on October 30 this year took opposite position and proposed self-handling for domestic carriers.
Ever since the litigation began, the ministry maintained that the decision to cap number of ground-handlers had been taken on security grounds.
06/12/15 Nirbhay Kumar/mydigitalfc
