Ground handling services provider, Çelebi Aviation Holding, has won the ground handling license for Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) for 10 years through an international competitive bid process.
Strengthening the firm’s presence in India, this is the third win for Çelebi since last year, after winning the licenses for the Bengaluru and Kannur airports. Çelebi plans to make an investment of $5-6 million.
Under the 10-year concession, Çelebi Aviation will provide ground handling services to make customer experience at the city airport seamless. With this, Çelebi will partner with RGIA to offer services to over 20 million passengers.
Murali Ramachandran, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Çelebi Aviation Holding Inc, India, said, “The year gone by was a very important year for Çelebi as it marked the 10th anniversary of our India operations. Our partnership with RGIA is an important benchmark in our decade long journey as it sets another milestone towards our efforts of strengthening our presence and commitment in the India aviation market.”
“India is a key market for us. With our focused and strategic expansion plans, we stand committed to contribute, support and play a meaningful role in catalysing the growth story of the Indian aviation sector,” he said.
With a 60-year-old legacy, since its inception globally,Çelebi is present across the India’s top three airports of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and has the capability to service close to 50 per cent of the aviation traffic in the country.
The company also has operations in Kochi, Ahmedabad and has recently started offering its services at the Kannur International Airport, that started its operations in December 2018. Çelebi is also partaking in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports bid process for about 30 airports and also has Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL) on its radar.
The foundation of the Çelebi Aviation Group was laid in 1958 with the inception of Çelebi Ground Handling, Turkey's first privately-owned ground handling services company. In addition to the ground handling services, the company also started providing cargo & warehouse services in 2009 with the establishment of Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India, that was previously completely run by the Government. The joint venture between DIAL and Çelebi Ground Handling Turkey, Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India, today, is the largest cargo terminal by volume in the country.