NEW DELHI: Indian government on late Thursday wasted no time in appointing the multi-crore hospitality major Bird Group (that manages a portfolio of Roseate hotels in UK and India) along with Air India as the two primary ground handling (GH) operators, hours after annulling the operations of controversial Turkey company Celebi.
Further, according to late night discussion, details of which were accessed by The New Indian, the Celebi Cargo terminal and entire cargo operations shall be now taken over by DIAL ( the GMR Group).
GMR group will retain all existing Celebi Cargo staff on the payrolls of the primary company to handle the cargo services.
ALSO READ: India revokes clearance of Turkish cargo firm Celebi; had monopoly since 2008
Till Thursday, Turkish company Celebi was handling both cargo and ground handling (GH) services in Delhi and many other airports in India.
The ground handling operations, however, would be taken over by Bird Group and Air India SATS.
“As India’s civil aviation ministry has informed that Celebi airport services is unable to meet the requirements for rendering ground handling services at IGI airport with immediate effect, DIAL has terminated the ground handling agreement with Celebi. The other two ground handling agencies (GHAs), operating at IGI airport — AI SATS and Bird Worldwide Flight Services (BWFS) will be contacting all airlines at Delhi airport to provide services in relation to ground handling,” the order by GMR’s Chief commercial officer Puskar Nath Thakur said.
This means ground-handling for all domestic and international airlines would now be distributed between Air India SATs and Bird Group.
Bird Group, led by its chairperson Radha Bhatia and her husband Vijay Bhatia, has diversified interests and runs a portfolio of Roseate group of hotels across the UK and India.
It also operate showrooms for luxury automobile major BMW.
This Delhi-based group recently launched a new property Beechfield House in Wiltshire in the UK.
Bird has already handling ground staff for more than a dozen airlines including Air Seychelles, Egypt Air, Finnair, FIJI Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Hong Kong Airlines, Hunnu Air, Icelandair, MIAT Mongolian, Philippine Airlines, Rwand Air, Skyup, Shandong Airlines, Vietjet Thailand, with the recent addition being Riyadh Air last month, officials told The New Indian.
On Thursday, the Indian government revoked the security clearance of Turkish company Celebi amid outrage that Turkey had provided arms and weapons including, and not limited to drones, to Pakistan to carry offensive strikes against India in the recent military escalation between two countries following April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
The order by Bureau of civil aviation and security (BCAS) mean that Turkish company Celebi would cease to operate.
Till Thursday, a 2008 agreement between Celebi and GMR-run DIAL managed the cargo operations as well as ground-handling. The joint venture was called Celebi Delhi for last 17 years.
“DIAL has assured their best possible support and steps to maintain the continuity of the existing agreement between Airline and Celebi transferred, as is, to one of the two GHAs. This would be an interim arrangement with same terms and conditions of the agreement with Celebi,” an official said.
What Happens to the Indian staff of Celebi?
• All existing Celebi staff handling the client airline also would be transferred under the employment of the same GHA who the client airline has been passed over to.
• Celebi staff would be putting on High Visibility Jackets to hide any reference to Celebi/uniform synonymous with Turkish Association.
• All staff’s existing airport entry passes will be Valid for one week. Thereafter, their new employer (One of the two GHAs) would be applying fresh Temporary passes for them before regularizing their employment.
• Subsequently, DIAL would tender for the third Ground Handler and once on boarded, the client airlines of Celebi would have the option to enter into a fresh agreement with the new handler.
• There would be no involuntary loss of job for any Celebi staff (Below and Above the wing).
Officials at GMR airport said some disruption may happen including issues in cleaning/availability of Equipment for wide body aircrafts but both GHAs have assured that after a week, issues will be resolved.
Celebi used to handle 330 flights per week at Delhi’s IGI Airport. Of which, 260 of which are international while 70 are domestic.
