Recently, I got back from the 81st Annual AAAE Conference and Exposition. This year it was held in downtown Philadelphia. One of the session topics that caught my attention was the issue of airports taking over the ground handling services as a way to attract and retain airlines. Most of the airports that are interested in this are the smaller airports that have a couple flights a day, but wish to hang onto the airline business that they already have at their locations. These airports are purchasing used ground support equipment and then going through training to run the operations above and below the wing.
More and more of these airports are looking to move in this direction, not only as extra revenue opportunities, but as a way to really ease the responsibilities from the airlines so that the carriers don’t have to completely pull out from a location or consolidate as many flights. This will lead to the airports hiring more staff, especially on the ground operations side to aptly serve the airlines.
It was very interesting to listen to the success stories and the amount of airports that were truly interested in taking on this responsibility. What does this mean for ground support and the industry as a whole? What are we doing to help these airports accomplish this? What is coming next?
Included in this edition of Ground Support Worldwide is a feature titled “QCIA’s AirTran Pilot Program” that addresses just this issue, as it takes a look at the case of an airport that has recently gotten into ground handling services for one of its carriers.
Inevitable Change and Adaptation
The keynote speaker for the opening of the show was Gary Kelly, president and CEO of Southwest Airlines, and he said something that really stuck in my head: We as an industry need to come together to persevere, and this up-and-down economic cycle that we go through every 10 years makes us stronger and smarter every time we live through it.
The future of ground support is changing as we know it, and with change comes new beginnings and new ways to serve the industry together. It’s time to concentrate on how to best adapt to the changes.
We here at Ground Support Worldwide are always looking for comments and feedback from you, the readers. Please contact me with any letters to the publisher to share your thoughts. I am always interested in hearing from you.
