Dnata To Provide Handling At India's Busiest Airports

Dnata, as part of an international consortium, has been granted a 10-year licence by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to provide ground and passenger handling services at four of the country's busiest airports - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Trivandrum.

Dnata's partners in the consortium are UK-based Menzies Aviation Group Holdings (Asia Pacific) which was previously known as Ogden Aviation; the Indian aviation company Interglobe Enterprise Ltd; and United Airlines.

Dnata, Menzies and Interglobe each own 30 per cent and United 10 per cent of the new joint venture.

The consortium will provide aircraft, passenger and cargo handling and ramp transportation. Work has started already on setting up stations at the four airports and the consortium intends to be fully operational by September this year.

Gary Chapman, Chief Director Support and Development, said: "I welcome this news and thank the Airports Authority of India for their confidence in us.

This is a major leap forward in the overseas expansion of Dnata's airport handling joint ventures."

The Indian Government invited international bids for a total of nine airports; the consortium applied for licences at the four busiest, having assessed traffic volumes at all nine.

The consortium will be one of a total of five ground handlers at each destination.

Indian Airlines and Air India automatically have licences to operate; and three more ground handling licences have now been granted at each airport.

Khaled Al Kamda, Head of Corporate Development for the Emirates Group, said: "This gives us a foothold in an area of great interest which has been closed until now to third party international ground handling. With a total of five ground handling companies at each point, we will face competition but we intend to emphasise our service standards in order to achieve business volumes. There is clear business potential which the consortium is targeting and work has started already on marketing our services to the airline industry."

Dnata will send a number of senior staff members by the beginning of June on secondment to help establish the four stations. A technical team from each member of the consortium has identified the equipment required and is in the process of inviting tenders from suppliers.

The Indian Government has specified a framework of 60 days within which to start work. Completely new equipment will be required at three of the four airports; United is already established at Delhi with staff and equipment which will now be taken over by the consortium.

Mercator, the IT subsidiary of the Emirates Group, and the Emirates Training College have been invited to provide for airport automation and the training of the estimated 1,200 staff who will be required.

Emirates Airline operates to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and, under the terms of the agreement, airlines affiliated to consortium members will move to the consortium unless restrictions prevent it.

Dnata already has joint ventures in operation at four airports in Pakistan (Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore) and at Manila in the Philippines.

Notes:

Menzies Aviation Group has become one of the world's leading independent suppliers of ground handling services to the aviation community following its recent purchase of Ogden Ground Services.

Interglobe is General Sales Agent for 12 airlines, distributes the Galileo reservation system and was instrumental in establishing United's self-handling operations at Delhi.