Unhappy with changes in ground handling policy:Vijay Mallya

With a month to go for implementing the new ground handling policy, airlines once again have decided to oppose it in a big way. At a meeting of the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) attended by airline top honchos the industry has said they are not happy with the new ground handling policy.

Airlines are not happy with the changes in ground handling policy, which is to come into affect on January 1, said Chairman of Kingfisher Airlines , Vijay Mallya. "Airlines will come together and form a committee to be headed by the FIA Chairman," he said, adding that the committee will submit proposals to government on ground handling policy.

Here is a verbatim transcript of CNBC-TV18's Mehak Kasbekar's comments on the issue.

Airlines are not happy at all. It is the third time in fact that they have opposed the ground handling policy changes in a big way. On January 1, 2010 is when the implementation of this has to happen.

Just last week we had broken the story on CNBC-TV18 saying that we have picked up from Ministry sources that in fact the changes will go through and the ground handling policy will definitely be implemented on January 1.

However, airlines have joined hands. There was a big meeting here. We had Vijay Mallya, we had all the top honchos of the industry here and they have decided to form a committee, which will be headed by the general secretary of the FIA, Anil Baijal. They will be making presentations to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that is the aviation regulator as well as the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) on why this ground handling policy changes should not come through.