A-I, Indian tie up for airport in Hyderabad

Air India (A-I) and Indian Airlines have joined together in a consortium for the first time to jointly bid for the ground handling operations at the new Hyderabad International Airport Limited (HIAL), which will be ready by 2008. The consortium has bid Rs 120 crore (which they will pay to HIAL annually as fee) to handle the operations in the upcoming airport.

Till now, both the companies have been pitting against each other to get their pie for the ground handling operations at different airports and had been traditional competitors in the bidding process.

"The coming together for HIAL, would help us synergise our operations and improve profitability. It would eliminate the much desired unnecessary competition between the two government entities, and strive the way for smoother ground handling operation, post merger," said a senior A-I executive.

At present, A-I provides ground handling services at 10 airports, catering to over 35 international airlines. While Indian Airlines manages ground handling operations in all domestic and international airports.

It provides ground handling services to half a dozen domestic and 20 international airlines.

Both the airlines are still competing against each other to grab the market at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calicut, Chennai and Trivandrum airports.

They have been bidding against each other to grab the annual ground handing contracts.

According to aviation sources, the new venture is the first step that would help both the airlines to synergise their ground handling operations as the new government policy to promote only three players in ground handling services at the airports comes into operation.

Apart from AI and Indian (Airlines) only Airports' Authority of India and private companies confirming to the standards laid down by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security would handle ground handling operations at Indian airports.

AI has already bagged the ground services tender at the Bangalore International Airport Limited greenfield project, in joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) with a budget of Rs 70 crore.

It would also spend Rs 150 crore in the next fiscal to upgrade its ground handling operations at the 10 different airports it currently serves.