Sitting at the terminal at Incheon International Airport after a quick trip to Seoul, Korea (well, not that quick if you include the flying time), I watched a new Airbus A-380 being towed to the gate. Soon thereafter catering trucks started toward the aircraft to prepare it for departure.  What struck me was that the trucks were being marshaled into position. Not one, but two human beings were actually making sure the catering truck got as close as it needed to the aircraft – but no closer. As you all know, this is not a common sight at U.S. airports these days as it needs to be. For years now, the thinking all over the United States has been if a job could be done with less staff, then by all means eliminate the staff and save on...

In early November, I made my way to the annual Airports Going Green conference, held each year in downtown Chicago and organized by the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) and the Amercian Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). I have attended this event for the past three years, and I don't intend to stop. It seems that the program is more comprehensive each year — and attendance is growing, bringing in more than 300 airport and aviation professionals from the U.S. as well as from abroad in 2012.  The agenda included an airport sustainability directors track and a technology and innovation track. One session, 'Closing the Loop: Toward a Net Zero Airport,' featured key case studies of net-zero programs at airports today, like...

We’re wrapping up the quickest European trip we’ve ever made. Two days of travel for two days of business that still packed in plenty of activities. Arrived at Charles DeGaulle Airport at 8:30 a.m., Sunday, and met up with Fadi Anbouba, vice president of sales and service for TLD America. Fadi outlined TLD’s global initiatives and discussed the reasons why his company invited the press to meet at Chateauroux Airport – a demonstration of TLD’s Taxibot, a towbarless tractor with the engineering prowess to not only push back a plane, but let the pilot essentially command the tractor and not so much be towed as drive the aircraft all the way to the foot of a runway without power from the aircraft’s engines. But witnessing that...

It’s not every day we read a GSE story of international intrigue, corporate raiders, back room deals, even immoral business practices. But yesterday, one of our Google alerts sent us to The Loadstar blog, which recounts how a 2007 deal between Swissport and Ukraine International Airlines went south. The Good Guy Swissport bought a 51 percent stake in a ground handler called Interavia from UIA and set up Swissport Ukraine. Meanwhile, UIA kept a 30 percent interest in the Swissport business. By all accounts, the relationship between airline and ground handler are good. Meanwhile, Swissport Ukraine picks up business with 20 other customers. The Bad Guy Aron Mayberg, who acquired all of UIA when the airline was privatized last...