Essay On Aviation Ground Services Management

Ground services are an integral part of the airline operation. In the aviation industry aircraft, ground handling defines the servicing of an aircraft during its presence at the terminal gate or it is on the ground of an airport (Ashford, N.J. et al (2013). According to the study the control and supervision of an airline station in a outsource environment or the Airline ground services can refer to a wide range of services offered to ensure the repositioning, and preparation, of aircraft that will include both the customer services and ramp service function (Tuchen, Arora and Blessing 2020). International Air Transport Association (IATA), estimated that the airlines outsource more than 50% of the ground handling that is performed at the airports. Ground handling addresses the service requirement of an airline during its stay at the terminal gate or till the time of its departure. Analysis has presented that the success of the aviation industry holds a significant impact on the management operations as it is identified previously that global developments have identified and put to test most of the core aviation industry and related business practices (Kazda and Caves (2015).

 

Based on these determinations this paper presents a discussion on the current strategies adopted by the aviation industries to handle the emergence of the global pandemic. In this case, Swissport ground handling company is selected as the aviation ground service provider. This discussion will be supported by the determination of challenges and issues experience by Swissport ground handling company, mitigation strategies adopted by Swissport ground handling company as well as recommendations to improve the existing working scenario.

 

Swissport ground handling company offers the best-in-class airport ground services for 97 million airline passengers and served the services roughly 5.1 million tons of air freight at over 100 cargo warehouses worldwide (Swissport Ltd., 2022). Till the year 2021, Swissport was operating at 285 airports in 45 countries. Swissport ground handling company has a wider global existence than any competitors or the service provider and the clients of Swissport ground handling company benefit from the industry’s widest single-source service portfolio. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused massive disturbances all over the air freight sector, with the cargo supervisors forced to regulate rapidly to frequently drastically diverse operating and profitable environments, rendering to the requirements of customer airlines and the necessity to manage and defend the staff and industries at the numerous airports where operations are being operated.

 

From the analysis, it is determined that the air cargo handler and the business continuity plan have been forced to the limit as they weekly respond to highly disrupted as well as violated airline and freight market. Further research has presented that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the air-ground service handler service providers as well as the air service management sector with drastic demands on the operating and commercial environment to ensure that the passengers and employees are safe and the pandemic spread is restricted. Focusing on this aspect a detailed investigation is performed on the Swissport ground handling company. In the below section a list of challenges experienced by the organization due to the COVID-19 upsurge is mentioned:

 

 

Followed by a detailed analysis of the operations of Swissport ground handling company it is identified that major exposure to the passenger airline business has heavily affected the global market position of Swissport has resulted in an 80% drop in the revenue for April and May. Based on this identification it can be stated that however there are multiple alternatives and payment return strategies adopted by Swissport, restrictions in airline operations have majorly affected the revenue of this organization has resulted in a major downfall in business growth and revenue of Swissport (Swissport Ltd., 2022). In addition to this due to the fall in the global market because of Covid-19, the service handling service provider has experienced a decrease of 50% in revenue as compared to 2019 (Airport.nridigital.com. 2022).

 

 

In addition to this, it is identified that due to this significant upsurge in the COVID-19 pandemic the global market has collapsed and the recovery path for Swissport has been blocked by the restrictions due to COVID-19. Followed by a detailed analysis of the challenge experienced due to the blockage of operation recovery it is determined that Swissport slashed near about 4500 jobs from the Belgium division to ensure that the organization is still capable of preventing bankruptcy. In addition to this, this is to mention that More specifically there were 2500 ground handling jobs as well as the outsourcing partnership was at stake because of the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, from another research article, it is determined that during 2020 May-June Swissport Ground Handling Service Company faced a financial loss that has forced it to seek a reported 500 to 700 million euros in recovery funds to come over from the disruption. In addition to this since the upsurge of the pandemic, the firm approves that around 23,000 individuals have left the company. It presently has 42,500 staff, around 17,000 of which are still on the provisional absence or in other government-sponsored programs (Airport.nridigital.com. 2022).

 

 

Further research has presented that the airport ground service organization Swissport is paying a high price because of the upsurge in the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to this, it is also determined that there are other airline ground handling companies as well that deal with labor crises in ground handling looming and this could accelerate the deployment of automation at airports worldwide. During the pandemic, employee safety become one of the major reasons that restricted the company from continuing its services. Apart from these major restrictions in airline operation have also affected the revenue line of the organization that influenced Swissport to cut down jobs to save expenses. While analyzing this issue it is identified that currently, the ground handling service providers are experiencing a lack of laborers however, the organizations are recovering from the loss because of a lack of support from human resources to ensure Swissport returns to its simple operations (Airport.nridigital.com. 2022). Since in the early days the employees of air-ground handling service provider Swissport have experienced insecurity in employment the organization is experiencing challenges to scale up the business by hiring skilled employees (Price and Forrest 2016). Apart from this, the health and safety issues were influenced by the upsurge in Covid 19 has also affected the supply chain staff.

 

From the above determination it can be stated that job losses, loss of revenue as well as labour crises in ground handling looming are the three major threats that have affected the operations of Swissport Ground Handling Service Company due the upsurge of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Analysis has presented that job losses, loss of revenue as well as labor crises in ground handling looming are the three major threats that have affected the operations of Swissport Ground Handling Service Company due to the upsurge of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the below section the list of mitigation strategies adopted by Swissport ground handling company to handle the risks is mentioned:

 

 

After analyzing the recovery report of Swissport Ground Handling Service Company it is determined that to eliminate the threat of job losses and uncertainty to employment the Swissport Ground Handling Service Company initiated an employment retention approach across the organization. In addition to this to safeguard future employment facilities, Swissport Ground Handling Service Company raised funds by millions of euros (Airport.nridigital.com. 2022). The company announces that the airport ground service is restricting its job security and employment approach to ensure that Swissport staff who provide passenger services, as well as cargo and ramp handling in 300 airports around the world, will get job security. In addition to this, it is determined that 300 million euros played an important role in confidently trade during the

 

In addition to the above-mentioned strategies adopted by Swissport Ground Handling Service Company, it is determined that the organization has also focused on reducing the health and safety impact of Covid on the staff to promote better health and service management in the workplace. To address this aim Swissport Ground Handling Service Company continuously operates with the global health and safety measures that the best industry standards adopted at different airports around the world (Airport.nridigital.com. 2022). Considering health and safety as the top priority of Swissport Ground Handling Service Company the service provider adopted ICAO, IGOM, ISAGO, and ISO 9001:2015 framework, zero-accident target, as well as mandatory vaccination that has helped the organization to protect the staff from being affected by covid-19 or any other infectious pandemic.

 

 

Followed by determining the strategies adopted by Swissport Ground Handling Service Company it is identified that there is still room for improvement to guide Swissport Ground Handling Service Company to continue its services and ensure recovery from covid-19: -

 

 

It is determined that the staffs of Swissport Ground Handling Service Company are vulnerable to getting infected by covid 19. Thus, it is recommended to use automated vehicles to ensure that the organization gets improvement in productivity and facilitates robust operation as there is less chance of disruption. The implementation of automated vehicles will surely promote flexible and resilient operation infrastructure and a decreased dependency on human labor (Graham 2013).

 

 

In addition to the above, it is suggested to opt for the code of conduct to ensure that the organization is protecting its staff from harmful elements associated with the ground service (Salas and Maurino 2010). The Swissport Code of Conduct is a set of principles and corporate rules that define our ethical standards and thus, it is recommended to all the staff of Swissport to follow the Code of Conduct to ensure that the organization is delivering the best services to the customers (Young and Wells 2011).

 

After completion of the above discussion, it can be concluded that Swissport ground handling company offers the best-in-class airport ground services for 97 million airline passengers and served the services roughly 5.1 million tons of air freight at over 100 cargo warehouses worldwide. Covid-19 pandemic has caused massive disturbances to Swissport ground handling company and forced to regulate rapidly to drastically diverse operating and profitable environments, rendering to the requirements of customer airlines and the necessity to manage and defend the staff and industries at the numerous airports where operations are being operated. To eliminate the issues such as job losses, loss of revenue as well as labor crises in ground handling looming Swissport adopted many strategies however, a few recommendations to support future improvement are mentioned in this paper.

 

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Ashford, N.J. et al (2013) Airport Operations. New York McGraw Hill

 

 

Graham, A. (2013) Managing Airports. 4th ed. Oxford. Butterworth-Heinemann.

 

 

Kazda, A. and Caves, RE (2015) Airport Design and Operation. Bingley. Emerald.

 

 

Price, J. and Forrest, J. (2016) Practical airport operations, safety and emergency planning protocols for today and the future. Burlington. Butterworth-Heinemann.

 

 

Salas, E. and Maurino, D (2010) Human factors in aviation. London. Elsevier.

 

 

Swissport Ltd., S., 2022. Protect yourself against COVID-19. [online] Swissport.com. Available at: <https://www.swissport.com/en/sustainability/employees-and-society/health-and-safety/protect-yourself-against-covid-19> [Accessed 22 July 2022].

 

 

Tuchen, S., Arora, M. and Blessing, L., 2020. Airport user experience unpacked: Conceptualizing its potential in the face of COVID-19. Journal of air transport management, 89, p.101919.

 

 

Young, S and Wells, A. (2011) Airport Planning and Management. 6th ed. New York. McGraw Hill.