Government may defer implementation of ground handling policy

Buckling under pressure from airlines and airline employee unions, the civil aviation ministry may defer implementation of the new ground handling policy from January 1 next year by at least six months, sources said.

The new policy disallows private domestic carriers to handle passengers, ramp and aircraft. Instead, it has assigned three specialised agencies to undertake this business.

Fourteen employee unions of the flag carrier, Air India, have strongly opposed the move, despite National Aviation Company Ltd (NACIL) being a part of the new policy on ground handling. The unions feel the move will eventually lead to privatisation.

“A formal announcement to this effect will be made by the ministry by mid-December,” said a top source. The airlines have been resisting the move to part with ground handling services over the issues of service differentiation and employee retrenchment.

Industry estimates suggest that at least 8,000 employees stand to lose jobs if the new policy comes into effect. This number does not include the partial job-loss which the unions of NACIL say will happen when the ground handling special business unit of Air India is spun off into a separate company in a joint venture with the Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).

“If the policy is not deferred, there will be a head-on collision with the government. The new policy will eventually break away the ground handling segment from NACIL and lead to the formation of a separate company for ground handling, which is a private venture on a revenue-sharing basis, forcing a change in our service conditions. Why would we want another company to share revenues with us when we have been doing ground handling for airlines for the past so many years,” said a trade union office-bearer.

Last month, two of the biggest airports in the country — the Delhi International Airport Ltd and Mumbai International Airport Ltd — awarded contracts to private ground handling agencies for these airports.