Airport Ground Handling Volume 1

Tech Jerry Aviation

Airport Ground Operations
What is Ground Operations? Ground Operations at the Station level, encompasses a number of administrative and operational functions related to the servicing of a parked aircraft on arrival and its preparation for departure. The scope of the services may include aircraft servicing, passenger and baggage handling, cargo processing, and a number of other activities depending on the scale of the operations. Ground operations may be self-contained within the airline or outsourced to Ground Service Providers (GSPs), depending on the agreement between the parties.

In response to the challenges the aviation industry is facing today, airlines have had to adopt cost-cutting measures across all areas of operation, including ground handling. In order to be cost-effective, airlines have outsourced their ground operations functions to Ground Service Providers. Consequently, the Station Manager's role has evolved from exclusively overseeing his airline staff to managing external service providers as well.

Although Ground Operations Management involves a great number of activities and responsibilities at the airline's corporate level, this course focuses on the duties of the Station Manager and the skills required to manage ground operations at the airport, according to the latest industry safety and security best practices.

Station Managers must bring to the job an extremely wide range of skills, abilities, and talents. Never has this been truer than in today's world, as the international airline industry becomes increasingly competitive and cost-conscious. Even though the number of passengers continues to grow, these passengers are also becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of their expectations of the airline product.

Most bookings (approximately 90%) are made online, which means that the passenger's first contact with the airline is at the station. It is, therefore, the Station Manager's responsibility to ensure that this contact is, at the very least, pleasant and satisfactory, giving the passenger no cause for complaint. The airline in general and the station, in particular, must aim to encourage repeat business from their passengers.

Airline Customer Service
Welcome to the exciting, changing world of airline customer service!
Whether you are interested in an airline career or already work in the industry, this course has been designed with you in mind and your customers in mind. It will provide an overall understanding of the airline industry and the airline customer service techniques, in particular, a wealth of information needed to apply your new skills and knowledge.
We will discuss in detail the scope and structure of the aviation industry and customer service while taking you on a tour of airlines and their services and explain how customer service excellence can be achieved. You will discover how airlines adapt to the socio-economic, trends and technological changes that impact the airline industry as a whole. Being highly competitive businesses, airlines must recognize the importance of providing employees with the best training available to ensure they acquire the proper skills and knowledge.

Airport Ramp handling
In the introduction, we discussed the overall role of Airport Ramp Services and their involvement during an aircraft turnaround. Upon arrival at an airport, after an aircraft has landed and taxied under its own power to an allocated parking position, a number of services will need to be carried out. In some cases, it will need guiding into its final position by hand signals and this is referred to as marshaling the aircraft. Equipment, such as passenger steps to allow passengers to be unloaded (or ‘disembarked’) into the arrivals area and conveyor belts to facilitate baggage and cargo to be offloaded and delivered to the baggage hall or cargo center must be positioned. Once empty, the aircraft will be cleaned and serviced ready for its next departure.
Before the aircraft leaves again the passengers for the next destinations must be boarded, baggage and cargo loaded, catering placed on board and everything safely closed up. Once finished, staff may be required to perform a final walk around of the aircraft to check that all doors and service panels are closed and secured and then work with the cockpit crew to perform ‘push back’ from the parking position and engine start using a headset link or hand signals.
Other services provided can include the provision of electrical power to allow the engines and internal power source to be shut down while the aircraft is on the ground. It may also be necessary, at busy airports, to move the aircraft from its terminal parking area, especially if it is on the ground for a long time or needs servicing. This is done with a heavy aircraft tug, the same type used for ‘push back’.