"Bidders told to retain 40% of Indian airport staff"

Wednesday, August 18, 2004 

Bidders told to retain 40% of airport staff 
India - The Business Standard


New Delhi, India - The privatisation and modernisation of the Delhi and
Mumbai airports will come with strict conditions on employee retention.
The developers of the two airports would have to absorb a minimum of 40
per cent of the existing employees in these airports, the government
said today.  
  
"The empowered group of ministers has decided that the joint venture
company developing the two airports will be required to absorb a minimum
of net 40 per cent of the existing employees at these airports. The
employees who are not absorbed by the joint venture companies will
revert to the Airports Authority of India," Union Civil Aviation
Minister Praful Patel said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya
Sabha.  
  
The foreign direct investment has been capped at 49 per cent and minimum
25 per cent equity in the joint venture group is to be held by Indian
entities. Besides, maximum permissible equity participation by Indian
scheduled airlines has been increased from 5 to 10 per cent.  
  
Ten consortiums have bid for taking up the two airports, including
consortium of Bharti Enterprise-Singapore Changi Airport,
Videocon-Methven Corp, Hochtief Airpot-Piramal Holding, Macquarie
Bank-Agarwal Galvanising-Aeoprorts De Paris, GMR Infrastructure-Fraport
AG, Pan India Paryatan-TAV Investment Construction Corp, GVK
Industries-Airports Company South Africa, DLF-Malaysia Airport, Reliance
Airport and DS Construction-Flughafen Munchen of Munich.  
  
Patel also said that Air-India would add two more flights in the
Mumbai-Frankfurt-Los Angeles route and Mumbai-Delhi-London route from
November 2004. Air-India currently operates three flights per week on
Mumbai-Frankfurt-Los Angeles and back route and it proposes to add two
more frequencies with B747-400 aircraft from November.  
  
The airline, which operates twice on Mumbai-Delhi- London and back route
every week, will add one more flight per week on the sector with
B747-400 aircraft.  
  
To another question, Patel said under the existing policy, Air-India had
the first right of refusal on operations on new international routes.  
  
"Requests of Indian Airlines to operate more international services are
considered on a case-to-case basis," the minister said.


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