Airport policy will ground workers, warn airlines

NEW DELHI: Airline companies have told the government that they will be forced to retrench staff if the new ground-handling policy is implemented from July 1. The industry expressed its view to civil aviation secretary M Madhavan Nambiar on Monday. Ground-handling work includes passenger check-in, baggage screening, taxiing, refuelling and cleaning of the aircraft.

The new ground-handling policy allows only three agencies���state-owned Air India, airport operators such as Airports Authority of India, GMR and GVK and only one private agency selected through competitive bidding���to undertake ground handling services. Other domestic as well as international carriers have to outsource ground handling at airports to one of the three entities.

After the meeting on the contentious issue, Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said it may be forced to retrench staff if the new policy is implemented from July 1. Meeting was also attended by Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal and IndiGo promoter Rahul Bhatia. Mr Prock-Schauer said the quality of ground handling service would also be affected by the new policy.

The civil aviation ministry had last year announced it would put in place the new ground-handling policy from January 1, 2009. It, however, had to defer the implementation by six months as the move faced strong opposition from airlines. The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), the lobby group of the domestic airline industry, claimed the move may force carriers to retrench 8,000 ground staff.

The proposed policy is scheduled for implementation at six metro airports���Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.