Jet, Air Sahara to continue ground handling

A day after government decided to restrict the number of ground handling agencies in six major airports, full-frill private carriers Air Sahara and Jet Airways asked the government on Friday to let them continue providing these services.

"We are not questioning the intent (of the government decision). But we would urge the government to allow us to continue as we have an experience of over 13 years now in providing these services without a hitch," Air Sahara President Alok Sharma said on the sidelines of a conference on aviation and tourism in New Delhi.

Jet Airways and Air Sahara possessed the infrastructure as well as trained manpower to carry out these services in most of the major airports, he said.

Asked whether Air Sahara would be interested in the bidding for the private ground handler being proposed in the government policy, Sharma said:

"It is too early to say. However, that will lead us to enter into a different business altogether and we would want to concentrate on our activity of flying".

In the same vein, Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said bigger carriers like his own had substantial operations in all major metro airports and "therefore will request to be allowed to continue to handle its own flights with its own organisation".

He said the huge scale of operations justified that bigger airlines could continue self-handling. "This in no way will jeopardise the overall efficiency of the airport".

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