Monday 22 October 2012

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA’S POLICY ON AIRCRAFT GROUND HANDLING SERVICES AT AIRPORTS IN INDIA

Aircraft Ground Handling Services at airports in India has undergone major changes and made rapid improvements in the recent past consequent to the promulgation of the Gazette Notification that came into force effective 18th October,2007. These Regulations cover the entire spectrum of Ramp & Traffic Handling that covers Marshalling, Parking, Starting, Mooring of Aircraft as well as its cleaning, loading / unloading apart from Cargo Handling, Passenger and baggage handling, Cargo etc.. As these regulations make it mandatory for the authorized service provider to use only the latest state-of-art equipment and deployment of wholetime bonafide employees, the standards of Ground Handling at Indian airports has already shown signs of great improvements and is now comparable to international standards and practices.

Amongst the latest awardees of Ground Handling Services is Bhadra International who are providing these services at Chennai, Kolkata and all other airports in Southern Region of the country. It’s achievements in such a short span of time reveal that it has earned enormous praises from its client airlines. Some typical examples of its recent activities are worth noting.
As recently as the 12th October, Bhadra International commenced its quality professional Ground Handling services for Oman Air Flights at Chennai and Calicut airports. This commencement came as Bhadra International braced itself to also provide these world class professional Ground Handling services to Air Austral commencing 30th October at Chennai and the Dragon Airlines beginning November 2nd at Kolkata.
Bhadra International has also earned kudos for the successful commencement of operations for Lufthansa and Korean Air Freighter Flight, the leaders in carrying freight and freighter aircraft movements.
The company is already serving all the recent entrants at Chennai Airport, rendering total support in establishing new businesses of Air China and Hong Kong Airlines. In fact, it is also admirably meeting the requirements of Gulf Air who have doubled their number of weekly flights in the last six months.
On completion of recent Phase 1 of Haj Flights, the Management of Saudi Arabian Airlines had the following to place on record.
Quote
            “Alhamdullilah! Hajj Phase I successfully and peacefully completed today 20 Oct. 12 at 1509 hours.  We operated 30 Hajj charter flights and carried a total of 8835 Hajj Pilgrims from Calicut embarkation point during the period 06 Oct to 20 Oct 12.

Saudi Arabian Airlines would like to express its sincere gratitude to Bhadra and its staff for the support and cooperation extended to us during this period to ensure smooth Hajj handling. The service and assistance rendered to Hajj pilgrims by your staff were well appreciated by different agencies who were involved in this operations.

We request you to kindly convey our thanks to all your staff concerned”.

                                                                                                            Unquote

Bhadra and its contributions in enhancing Ground Handling Services at Airports in India are making the Civil Aviation in India real proud.

Saturday 20 October 2012

IMPORTANCE OF UTMOST PROFESSIONALISM WHILST UNDERTAKING GROUND HANDLING OF AIRCRAFTS



A recent accident at Chennai Airport has revealed that on 03 August 2012, a freighter aircraft of Qatar Airways, on completion of its loading / unloading operations was being pushed back by a tractor that surprisingly had “no brakes” and instead a messenger with “wheel chokes” was being used to walk along and use these “Chokes as a Brake” for halting the tractor.  It has emerged that after the “Push back operations and disconnection of tow-bar” the untrained tractor operator instead of driving clear, reversed the vehicle to hit the aircraft  and subsequent damage to the aircraft that resulted in its uncalled for ‘grounding of aircrafts” for 2 days, apart from considerable expense on repair of damage to the aircraft.

It is learnt that even though the Airports Authority has issued strict orders that Ground Handling Operations are to be carried out only by the Authorized Agencies that are obliged to strictly follow the IATA and ICCAO norms and standards, for some reason, in this case, the operations were being undertaken by a non-entitled agency that had been undertaking “Sensitive Aircraft Ground Handling Operations” using outdated antiquated 20 years old equipment such as this tractor without brake and untrained half baked manpower “as the operator in this case” who reversed the tractor instead of casting away, that resulted in serious damage.

The accident amply brings out the importance of UTMOST PROFESSIONLISM whilst undertaking ground handling operations at our airports. The Government of India has brought into force the latest regulations in this regard through a Gazette Notification which are already in force.  According to this, the authorized Ground Handling Agency would have to ensure that its Ground Handling Equipment is most modern (less than 5 years old) and totally compliant of IATA and ICCAO regulations.

We had an opportunity to interact with one of the such authorized Ground Handling Agency at Chennai Airport namely M/s Bhadra International and were informed that the company attaches the utmost importance to “Safety Management System” in its overall operations.  A dedicated officer not only overseas this aspect but also undertakes internal audits every three months for critical analysis.  This is in addition to the external audits that the company is subjected to by its client airlines.  These stringent audits backed by state-of-art environment friendly equipment pressed into service by the company is yielding excellent results apart from on time performance.
Such signs of revolutionary changes at our airport is now a reality.

Monday 15 October 2012

Bhadra International-Air Arabia



We thank the Bhadra International team for providing us with great service delivery in terms of technologically advanced equipment and quality manpower. You are way ahead than your competitors in terms of quality of service. We will recommend Bhadra to other carriers as well. Our sincere thanks to all your team members for their sincere efforts.

Saturday 6 October 2012

Bhadra International’s Best Investment, its Well Trained, Dedicated Staff”

The staff at Bhadra International undergoes a thorough selection procedure before being hired, and then attends step-by-step training according to specific roles once on board. Regular personal appraisals and incentive pay plans ensure that dedicated and motivated workers produce their very best.
Take, for example, Bhadra’s approach to its safety management system. A dedicated officer oversees safety and undertakes internal audits every three months. In addition, external audits are done by airline customers every six months to grade performance levels. The results of these audits are then implemented at various levels of company operations.

Chairman Prem Bajaj says proudly, “This has resulted in maintaining high standards of safety and on-time performance at all seven airports in our network.”

Bajaj has also invested in technology with “bhadratech,” an online system that keeps better track of cargo and equipment, and makes administrative duties, such as human resources and billing, that much easier.
Bhadra is not behind any international Ground Handling Agency, when it comes to GSE investment either.  Bhadra’s GSE fleet includes new equipment such as Schopf pushbacks; Hitzinger gpus; Rheinemetal air starts; TLD conveyors and auto steps; Hydro towbars; Trepel cargo loaders and transporters; and Trepel tugs.

Just for example, the Bhadra International inventory at Chennai Airport includes:
  • Fifteen passenger coaches.
  • Fifteen pushbacks.
  • Twenty step ladders.
  • Fifteen conveyors.
  • Fifteen main deck loaders for wide-body aircraft, eight low deck loaders for narrow-body aircraft.
  • Forty-five tow bars.
  • Ten gpus.
  • Fifteen cargo transporters.
  • Seventy-five battery-operated tugs and tractors.