The handling operator South, which belongs to the airline Iberia, came first in the international competition for ground handling at Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports. The information, confirmed to DN by an official source from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, means that the current operator, Menzies (which bought the old Groundforce), is about to definitively lose the concession. But it could still take a year for this to happen.
According to the government source, the “preliminary report” of the competition sent to the companies that competed “indicates that Clece (together with South Europe Ground Services) had the highest score. This is a public competition, launched in October 2024, by ANAC, which runs in accordance with the law, and with clear rules for the attribution of the respective licenses. Therefore, it is important to signal that a prior hearing phase follows, in which the competitors may challenge the content of the Report and the respective preliminary decision”. Companies now have five days to submit their response.
But the current license – without which Menzies cannot operate at airports – ends on 19 November. Which means that ANAC (which organized the competition and is the sector’s regulator) took precautions to guard against a possible void.
“ANAC has put to the Government’s consideration the extension, for one year, of the license currently in force (which ends on November 19th of this year), to ensure that there is no interruption of service in light of the current timings, and our intention is to move forward with this extension”, explains the Government to DN. In other words, Menzies will be able to operate for one year, and it is not clear whether it will leave before this deadline if everything is agreed with the winner of the competition, the Spanish company South.
One thing is certain: the Government already seems to take it for granted that Clece’s consortium with South will play a crucial role in the future, as it has already requested meetings with the company.
“The Government is aware of the importance of maintaining stable working conditions, it is analyzing all available options to protect current Menzies workers, having already requested a meeting with Clece and scheduled meetings with the Aviation and Airport Workers Union (SITAVA) and the Airport Handling Technicians Union (STHA)”, Miguel Pinto Luz’s office told DN.
Workers at Menzies (formerly Groundforce) have been challenging the company’s management, having called strikes this summer. It should also be remembered that many of these workers still have contracts that date back to the times when the handling company (at the time SPDH, then Groundorce and now Menzes) belonged to TAP.