THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ernakulam MP and Union minister of state for agriculture K V Thomas has written to Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh to hand over ground handling functions at Cochin International Airport to Air India-Singapore Airport Terminal Services Ltd(AI-Sats).
Singh's office, in turn, wrote to Rohit Nandan, CMD, Air India, asking him to "look into the matter". This comes at a time when questions are being raised as to how AI-Sats gained entry into Trivandrum and Mangalore airports without following due processes.
Thomas's letter, dated July 4, 2012, said: "I am writing to you with the request of handing over ground handling services at Cochin International Airport (Cial) to AI-Sats for ensuring quality of service to various customer airlines, as well as travelling public. As you are aware, Air India has been the sole ground handling agency at Cochin International Airport for many years... Initially there was a proposal to hand over the ground handling services to AI-Sats... However, now, Air India seems to have decided against allowing AI-Sats to take over ground handling functions."
Thomas said Padmaja Venugopal's son Karun Menon, an AI-Sats employee (HR, admin, Thiruvananthapuram), and Binoy Jacob, assistant vice-president, AI-Sats, had met him at his office in New Delhi to push AI-Sats' cause. "Padmaja's son had come to meet me and he wanted some recommendation. I get thousands of requests every week. I didn't think much about it. As he requested, I asked my office to write a letter to Ajit Singh to allow AI-Sats to take over ground handling there," he said.
The TOI also accessed another letter written by Thomas's private secretary K Satish Nambudiripad to Prabhat Kumar, private secretary to Singh, forwarded to CMD Rohit Nandan on August 27, 2012, asking Singh's office to expedite the process. "I am desired to request you to kindly look into the matter. It will be appreciated if Binoy Jacob and Karun Menon of the AI-stats could meet with you to brief you about the matter as and when convenient to you." When contacted, Jacob said he was acting on a previous invitation by Cial. "Cial invited us to do ground handling at the Kochi Airport, as Air India has lost many clients to WFS (a ground handling agency), due to their poor service" he said.
Cialauthorities, however, clarified that they only said they had no objections to Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL) undertaking the work and did not 'invite' AI-Sats. "We have a tendering process and we do not invite any agency," said A C K Nair, airport director, Cial.
In the case of Air India, Cial floated a tender in 1998 (valid for ten years) and in 2008 it floated another tender through which WFS gained entry. According to the ground handling policy, if a third agency has to be permitted, the airport should have a metro status. And if AI-Sats comes as a third agency, there will be a clear conflict of interest between Air India as a ground handling agency and AI-Sats as a joint venture, eating into each other's business.
At present, close to 210 AIATSL employees carry out ground handling at Cial.
Singh's office, in turn, wrote to Rohit Nandan, CMD, Air India, asking him to "look into the matter". This comes at a time when questions are being raised as to how AI-Sats gained entry into Trivandrum and Mangalore airports without following due processes.
Thomas's letter, dated July 4, 2012, said: "I am writing to you with the request of handing over ground handling services at Cochin International Airport (Cial) to AI-Sats for ensuring quality of service to various customer airlines, as well as travelling public. As you are aware, Air India has been the sole ground handling agency at Cochin International Airport for many years... Initially there was a proposal to hand over the ground handling services to AI-Sats... However, now, Air India seems to have decided against allowing AI-Sats to take over ground handling functions."
Thomas said Padmaja Venugopal's son Karun Menon, an AI-Sats employee (HR, admin, Thiruvananthapuram), and Binoy Jacob, assistant vice-president, AI-Sats, had met him at his office in New Delhi to push AI-Sats' cause. "Padmaja's son had come to meet me and he wanted some recommendation. I get thousands of requests every week. I didn't think much about it. As he requested, I asked my office to write a letter to Ajit Singh to allow AI-Sats to take over ground handling there," he said.
The TOI also accessed another letter written by Thomas's private secretary K Satish Nambudiripad to Prabhat Kumar, private secretary to Singh, forwarded to CMD Rohit Nandan on August 27, 2012, asking Singh's office to expedite the process. "I am desired to request you to kindly look into the matter. It will be appreciated if Binoy Jacob and Karun Menon of the AI-stats could meet with you to brief you about the matter as and when convenient to you." When contacted, Jacob said he was acting on a previous invitation by Cial. "Cial invited us to do ground handling at the Kochi Airport, as Air India has lost many clients to WFS (a ground handling agency), due to their poor service" he said.
Cialauthorities, however, clarified that they only said they had no objections to Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL) undertaking the work and did not 'invite' AI-Sats. "We have a tendering process and we do not invite any agency," said A C K Nair, airport director, Cial.
In the case of Air India, Cial floated a tender in 1998 (valid for ten years) and in 2008 it floated another tender through which WFS gained entry. According to the ground handling policy, if a third agency has to be permitted, the airport should have a metro status. And if AI-Sats comes as a third agency, there will be a clear conflict of interest between Air India as a ground handling agency and AI-Sats as a joint venture, eating into each other's business.
At present, close to 210 AIATSL employees carry out ground handling at Cial.
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