In a complete U-turn, a body of ground handlers today hailed the new National Civil Aviation Policy, saying it opens up the skies to greater competition and provides a level-playing field.
The National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), announced by the government two days ago, allows domestic airlines to undertake ground handling by themselves and deploy private security staff for non-core security duties at the airports.
The Ground Handlers Association of India (GHAI) had opposed self-handling by airlines in the run-up to the policy announcement, alleging that such provisions "breaks firewalls" and increases interaction numbers and data points.
In the earlier ground handling policy, airlines were allowed to choose from within three agencies to get the services.
"The new policy for ground handling clearly lays down a level-playing field among the authorised service providers in terms of the royalty. It has put a total stop on the hiring of manpower from the manpower suppliers at the security sensitive Indian airports," said Prem Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director of ground handling firm Bhadra International (India) Pvt Ltd and also a member of GHAI.
The government has allowed domestic carriers self-handling at all the airports only through their permanent employees or through the employees of their own subsidiary firms who are on regular employment and on their pay-roll.
"The government thus has taken a right decision in this regard keeping the charged security scenario," he said.
In the NCAP, the existing ground handling policy is being replaced with a new framework to ensure fair competition.
Under this, the airport operators have been advised to have maximum number of three ground handling companies including Air India's subsidiary/joint venture at all major airports as defined in AERA Act 2008.
At non-major airports, the airport operator has to decide on the number of ground handling agencies, based on the traffic output, airside and terminal building capacity.
All domestic scheduled airline operators including helicopter operators will be free to carry out self-handling with their permanent employees on their pay-roll at all airports.
Also, hiring of employees through manpower supplier will not be permitted.
"We are happy to note that including the national carrier Air India, there will be a total of three ground handlers at airports like Delhi and Mumbai where the passengers handled are in the range of 41 million passengers per annum," Bajaj said.
The policy has also given due emphasis on all equipment operating within the airport environment complying with latest emission norms by April 1, 2017, and aims to promote use of alternative fuel and deploying hydrogen and electric vehicles.
"An important aspect of the policy is the single window system for all aviation related transactions and complaints by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)," said Murali Ramachandran, CEO-India, Celebi Aviation, also a member of GHAI.
The ministry has taken a progressive step by insisting on permanent employment in this security and safety sensitive sector, he said.
According to Rakesh Jain, President and CEO of Indo Thai Airport Management Services, the NDA government for the first time is building an ecosystem that will lead to an increase in air travel by making it affordable with real time safety tracking.
"The ground handling part of the policy witnesses a lot of changes from the original draft and has become far more sector friendly. However, the process continues and requires further detailing and the crafting of appropriate rules and regulations and we hope that stake holders are involved with similar sincerity as was witnessed in the policy formulation stage," he added.
