Describing the arrangement as both illegal and fraudulent, SITAVA has called for strike action on the part of all the country’s handling companies: this is due to run from July 1-3.
The difficulty revolves around the fact that Ryanair, having gained a licence to self-handle at Lisbon, Faro and Oporto airports, has outsourced that very function to a third party handling company, that of Groundlink. Previously handled by Portway, Ryanair made the decision to cut loose from the Portuguese handler, which has led to the possibility of redundancies for some of the affected staff.
But this is not the whole story. The above-mentioned airports have limits in place on the numbers of allowable handling companies, in line with EU recommendations. Whilst the introduction of a self-handling operation poses no problem, the outsourcing certainly does: effectively, Groundlink becomes another third-party handler in a market that does not permit a new entrant.
Ryanair is also licensed for a self-handling operation in João Paulo II airport at Azores, and it appears that the same problem is occurring there. However, that particular market is open, so although the issue of subcontracting by a self-handler remains, at least there is not the issue of a limited market.
Furthermore, the law in Portugal is not equipped to deal with a situation that involves outsourcing stemming from a self-handling operation: outsourcing activity on behalf of a third party handler, however, is acceptable. This grey area now needs to be resolved and there are calls for the national authority to intervene before the situation escalates.
