 "Government buys time in ground-handling row")
Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju met representatives of private airlines last Thursday to discuss the issue. The government requested private airlines to seek stay orders in the courts for two months as it was mulling self-handling by airlines in a draft policy to be released soon.
Airlines have challenged the Airports Authority of India's recent decision to award the ground-handling contract at Chandigarh International Airport to Air India Air Transport Services, an Air India subsidiary. The Federation of Indian Airlines, and its members like IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and GoAir, have moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Two other cases related to ground-handling are pending with the Madras and Calcutta high courts.
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"The minister expressed concern over the cases. The ministry urged airlines to seek stay orders in ongoing cases for two months till the civil aviation policy came out," said sources present in the meeting.
Ground-handling services include check-in, luggage handling, aircraft cleaning and servicing, loading and unloading of food and beverages along with cargo handling. Airlines handle these on their own at most airports, including Chennai, Kolkata and Chandigarh, to cut costs and improve punctuality.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday accepted a plea filed by Ujjwal Dey, associate director, Federation of Indian Airlines seeking a stay of two months in the matter. The court, in its order on September 24, termed the AAI's decision that non-entitled ground-handling agencies be denied entry at the airport as "patently illegal and unreasonable". The court reserved an order till a decision was taken by the civil aviation ministry on October 15. The next hearing is scheduled onDecember 18.
The AAI had argued that rules framed in 2007 required permanent employees of airlines at airports to handle ground operations but private airlines had either hired contract workers or used external agencies. The judge made it clear that security-related functions specified by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security would be performed by permanent employees of private airlines and other ground-handling services could be outsourced, as per the regulations.
The airlines' federation had also filed an appeal against a July order of the Madras High Court in favour of Bhadra International India asking the AAI to remove other ground-handling agencies. The court set the next hearing for October 28. Sources said airlines would seek a stay of two months in the matter at the next hearing.
The Calcutta High Court had directed the AAI to follow the 2007 rules on ground handling. Ministry sources said it was keen to allow airlines to handle flights on their own but the home ministry had expressed concern over service providers at airports being a security risk. The draft civil aviation policy might allow airlines to hire fixed-term workers and handle some ground-handling services on their own. "We will discuss the issue with the home ministry," said a civil aviation ministry official.