Indo-Thai Airport Services appointed Mumbai Airport’s interim ground handling provider

Indo-Thai Airport Services has been appointed the interim ground handling provider at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), Mumbai, for three months, effective immediately, a spokesperson for the airport said in a statement.

After the Bureau of Civil Aviation (BCA) revoked Turkish ground services provider Celebi’s security clearance in the interest of “national security”, other ground services providers—Delhi-based Bird Group, Tata Group-owned Air India SATS and state-run AI Airport Services Limited—stepped in to take over ground handling responsibilities at several airports across the country. 

However, these measures are temporary, as per the regulations of the Directorate General of Aviation (DGCA), every airport with an annual passenger capacity of over ten million passengers needs at least three ground handlers. With Çelebi’s exit, airports, including Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, now only have two ground handling providers.

“The temporary handling arrangement is being executed without profit motives. This is purely a support initiative in national interest to prevent disruption and maintain operational integrity,” a senior executive of an aviation services company told Fortune India. It is now the airport operator’s task to select the third ground handler, the person said.

The CSMIA spokesperson said that it will facilitate the transfer of all existing employees of Çelebi NAS at CSMIA to Indo-Thai Airport Services on their existing terms and conditions of employment, thus ensuring no loss of employment and continued service delivery to airline partners. “All ground handling equipment currently owned by Celebi NAS will be leased by Indo Thai Airport Services to maintain continuity of service,” the statement added.

Within the next three days, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) – the operator of CSMIA – will initiate the Request for Proposal (RFP) process for onboarding a long-term ground handling partner. This partner will be onboarded in the next three months. MIAL has assured all airline partners that ground handling operations will remain unaffected, and operations at CSMIA will continue seamlessly and without any disruption.

The revocation of the security clearance is part of a larger diplomatic rift between India and Türkiye, after the latter supported Pakistan in the recent military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. However, Çelebi has challenged BCA’s revocation order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that it was not forewarned that its security clearance would be revoked imminently, and the “vague” reasoning over national security was given without reasoning, according to a Reuters report.

“Mere rhetoric of national security without elaborating upon in what manner is an entity a threat to national security is unsustainable in law,” the company said in the filing, which has not been made public, arguing that it was not forewarned about the possibility of its security clearance being revoked. Çelebi said that if the decision is not overturned, it would impact 3,791 jobs in India and would dent investor confidence.