The new ground-handling policy scheduled to come into effect from the first week of July has been delayed for a second time, the civil aviation ministry said today. The policy deadline has been extended for another six months, to be operational now by December 31 of this year.

“It’s not that the ground-handling policy has been delayed, it’s just that the exit of private airlines has been kept in abeyance. There were certain issues with private airlines. The airlines have already invested in ground-handling equipment and there was also the question of 31,000 people hired by the airlines for providing ground-handling services,” said civil aviation secretary M Nambiar. However, the ministry will try to resolve the issues in the next few months as self handling by airlines is not allowed anymore, Nambiar added.

One of the mandatory ground handlers, the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) or Air India has still not formalised the joint venture agreement (JV) with Singapore Airlines’ ground-handling firm Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).

Earlier, the Committee of Secretaries formed to resolve issues related to the ground-handling policy had decided to recommend to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to delay the policy implementation further by three months. It had cited passenger inconvenience and lack of time to put in place the requisite infrastructure as reasons for the delay.

Ground handling involves passenger check-in, besides baggage and cargo handling, cleaning and refuelling of aircraft. These services are currently handled by the airline operators themselves. The new policy will do away with the prevailing practice and bind airlines to choose from three agencies — the airport operator, Air India or an independent private ground-handling firm chosen by the airport — for the services.

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