A long-standing representative of the Turkish aviation industry with its investments and activities in the international arena, Çelebi Ground Handling (ÇGH) has made yet another addition to its sterling record of success. ÇGH has been granted the right to provide ground handling services at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), where it already had been awarded a cargo-handling contract at the New Delhi airport at India's capital. The third such award following up Çelebi's successes in the EU countries of Hungary and Belgium, the New Delhi contract is an important step forward in the company's presence in India's gigantic and burgeoning civil aviation industry.
ÇGH submitted the winning bid on a license to carry out airport ground handling services for a period of ten years at Delhi International Airport. The contract award was announced by the airport's operator, Delhi International Airport Private Ltd (DIAL), on 18 November 2009. Delhi International Indira Gandhi Airport is one of the two most heavily trafficked airports in India, the other being Mumbai International (BOM), and it currently serves about 23 million passengers and 220,000 flights a year. Infrastructure investments planned at the Delhi airport are expected to increase passenger service numbers to 37 million a year by 2012, 50 million a year by 2016, and 66 million a year by 2021.
With the addition of Delhi to its presence in India after Mumbai, Çelebi Ground Handling will be serving about half of all of the international flight traffic moving in and out of India.
Çelebi began working at Mumbai International Airport in July 2009 after being awarded a ten-year contract for the ground handling services at that airport. Not long afterwards the company received the license for cargo handling services at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport and joined the ranks of India's biggest civil aviation operators.
The first privately-owned company to venture into ground handling services in Turkey back in 1958, Çelebi took its first important step into the international arena in Europe in late 2006 when it began providing ground handling services at Budapest Ferihegy International Airport (BUD), which serves the Hungarian capital. This was followed by ÇGH's second success in Europe when the company gained the right to provide ground handling services at Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA) in Belgium.