SC notice on new airport ground handling policy

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the central government on the appeal of the Federation of Indian Airlines challenging the new ground handling policy, which was scheduled to come into force from April 1. The court, however, did not pass any stay order against the implementation of the policy. The court will hear the case again on April 25 after receiving the reply of the civil aviation ministry and other authorities.

The airline federation, consisting of Jet Airways, Kingfisher, IndiGo and others, had earlier approached the Delhi High Court for a stay of the policy but failed.

Therefore, they approached the Supreme Court. It had to face some searching questions from the bench comprising of Justice R V Raveendran and Justice A K Patnaik.

One of the main reasons for proposing the new policy by the Airports Authority of India was security concerns. According to the new regime, drafted in 2007, and postponed two times, private airlines were not allowed to do ground handling through outsourcing. They were asked do the job through government-approved agencies.

The judges wondered why the security concerns covered only certain airports and not others. The new policy is not applicable to Jammu, Amritsar and Cochin airports. It covered mainly the six metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. At present, each airline has its own ground handling staff.

The judges asked Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, who represented the civil aviation ministry, why the present system was being disturbed when it was working efficiently. “By this are you not killing the efficiency of private airlines?” they asked.

According to the new policy, the main airports will have only three ground handlers each. One is to be Air India-Singapore Airport Terminal Services and the other will be the airport operator, in alliance with a ground handling partner. The third handler for these six airports will be chosen by competitive bidding. AAI was supposed to get additional revenue of at least Rs 350 crore per annum by this arrangement.

However, the private airlines argue that the new policy will force them to assign their ground handling services either to Air India, which is one of their competitors or to common airport operators. In either case, they would lose their competitive edge over their rivals, they contend.