Hamburg

Faced with an increasingly competitive and liberalized market, Hamburg Airport has reorganized its ground handling services.

Hamburg Airport's HAM 21 Extension Project is indicative of the progressive nature of Germany's fifth largest commercial gateway. Far from resting on its laurels the airport is aggressively improving services for its near 10 million passengers per annum (mppa) and airline clients.

Of course, the driving force is not merely the philanthropic nature of its management but rather an intuitive understanding that the market it operates in is becoming increasingly competitive as liberalization within the European Union presents ever greater challenges and opportunities.

Aside from the expansion, part of Hamburg's response to this dynamic situation has been the reorganization of its ground handling operations. The airport subsidiaries -- AHS Hamburg Aviation Handling Services, CATS Cleaning & Aircraft Technical Services, STARS Special Transport & Ramp Services and GroundSTARS -- will now have their operations coordinated by a central Ground Handling business unit.

Although Hamburg is the major shareholder in each individual company, it did have partners to consider but as Ulrike Riedel, the new Head of Ground Handling at the airport explains "they were consulted and agreed. After all, the main target -- a successful business -- is shared by all shareholders."

This is not the first time Hamburg has responded to market conditions with changes in its ground handling structure. Almost a decade ago, EU laws on competition led the airport to partially privatize its ground handling units.

"In the mid-90s Hamburg Airport developed the Hamburg Model for an airport organization," Riedel reveals. "A major part of this was the change of ground handling departments into different subsidiaries for transport services and deicing, loading and cleaning. The organization as well as the newly implemented wage agreement was modelled to the specific market and competitive environment at that time. This was an important step to increase the flexibility and the competitiveness of each service."

A natural progression

Riedel views this latest shuffle as simply the next stage of development, a natural progression: "Despite the improvements, the airline customer often prefers one contact," she says. "For this reason the contracts were always centralized in Hamburg Airport itself and the services then sub- contracted to the subsidiaries.

"Now, contracts and operations are coordinated within the Ground Handling Department," she continues. "It is just the next logical step in the development of the organization towards the customer, who can now address the same unit regarding contract as well as operational questions."

This new arrangement means the Ground Handling Department will have to perform as a well-oiled machine. However, a culture of coordination among the different subsidiaries is helped by the Department's relatively small size.

"We are a small team," informs Riedel, "and we work closely together on all questions concerning the whole or major parts of ground handling." Two colleagues sit on the managing board of each of the different subsidiaries, one responsible for contracts and sales and one for the operational side of the unit. Such direct relationships ensure quick and easy communication.

And on the supervisory level, Riedel is working towards strengthening the links of her network through regular meetings. She hopes this will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the Department as a whole and the needs of the other units.