Govt clears new ground handling policy for civilian airports

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) The government today cleared a new policy to encourage competition in the security-sensitive ground handling services at major metro airports.

There will be three ground handling agents at the airports by January 1, 2009. One will be the airport operator or its subsidiary, another a subsidiary of Air India (AI) and Indian and third a ground handler selected through competitive bidding.

''As ground handling services are considered sensitive, the ground handler selected for each airport will have to abide by strict security protocols,'' said civil aviation minister Praful Patel after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the policy.

Ground handling includes aircraft handling, passenger handling, check-in services, cargo services and cargo clearing services.

Initially, the three players undertaking these services will serve major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Later, more airports will also be covered to provide better services and better pricing, said Mr Patel.

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