Government to allow private airlines to establish ground handling units

October 25, 2012   ·   0 Comments

NEW DELHI

To provide relief to the financially strained airline segment, the government on Thursday allowed private airlines to form ground handling subsidiaries at the metro airports of the country.

“It was decide that they (airlines) will be given an opportunity to form their ground handling subsidiaries at the metro airports,” a senior ministry official said after a meeting between Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and the management of the private airlines.

“Now a new policy will be drafted to accommodate the private airlines’ ground handling divisions.”

Currently, airline‘s either do ground handling on their own by hiring a third party agency.

The ground handling services includes not just check-in process, baggage handling, cargo handling, but also aircraft cleaning, loading of food and beverages, providing electricity back-up, water and transporting passengers to and from the aircraft.

The decision came after the private airlines opposed ground handling policy 2007, and challenged it in the Supreme Court in July 2011. The policy entailed that six main metro airports will have only have three ground handling agency.

Air India-Singapore Airport Terminal Services, airport operator’s ground handling partner and a third company would have been selected by the way of competitive bidding.

The scheme would have provided the Airports Authority of India (AAI) with additional revenue of Rs.350 crore per annum.

However, the private airlines challenged the policy in the Supreme Court, expressing their discontentment on losing cost advantage as their will be only three operators to choose from.

By Web Editor

Tags: agency, airline, form, Government, ground, the Supreme Court