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Just Where Was The First Boarding Bridge Installed?
By Steve Smith - Tuesday March 26, 2013
We heard from Joe Fuqua of Delta Air Lines and who also sits on our Editorial Advisory Board about last month’s cover story on “The History Of Ground Support Equipment.” Joe filled us in more on who was behind creating the first boarding bridge, and points to a different airport than the two - San Francisco and LaGuardia - which are typically credited for the first such installations in 1959. Until we hear otherwise, we think we can at least all agree on the year since Joe sent us a scanned-in copy of the October 1959 issue of Airlift published by American Aviation Publishing. On page 47, in an article headlined, “2 a.m. Brainstorm: Delta’s Jetway,” one Glenn Hughie writes about how Delta developed the original... -
Battery Myth No. 3
By Todd Allen - Monday March 25, 2013
TRUE OR FALSE: Electric vehicles just transfer emissions from the vehicle to the power plant generating the electricity used to recharge the batteries. FALSE: While there's some truth to this trade-off, electric GSE represents a really good trade! Electric vehicles still have a carbon footprint, meaning that carbon dioxide is produced in the total operation of the vehicle. It takes a lot of electricity to recharge batteries, and most of that electricity is generated by a power plant burning fossil fuels. Using the U.S. average, approximately 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide is generated every year to operate a single bag tractor. That sounds like a lot, and it is. But a comparable diesel tractor generates approximately 75,000... -
A Dangerous Reminder For GSE Operators Everywhere
By John Goglia - Monday March 25, 2013
Reading about the driverless van incident at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport reminds me of how much we can learn from each other’s mistakes and, hopefully, keep from making them ourselves. According to Canadian news reports, the incident involved an unattended van that was left running and in gear. That driverless van started rolling and managed to roll across an active runway just as an Air Canada flight was landing. Much of the news focused on why the Air Canada flight didn’t abort its landing after allegedly being ordered to do so more than once by air traffic controllers. But for ramp operators, the more important question is, of course, why was that van left running in gear without a driver? Normal precautions would... -
BizJets are Business Tools
By Ralph Hood - Wednesday March 20, 2013T his administration seems determined that bizjets are a mere convenience. How in the world they can believe this and still operate Air Force One is beyond me. The truth is that bizjets enable businesses to do things they can’t get done any other way. For example, a bizjet can make it possible for the top boss to spend a day at work in his/her Atlanta office, speak that night at the company sales meeting at Hilton Head, then return to Atlanta for a good night’s sleep. Try that on the airlines. (I saw this myself. Also—for not a dime more—the big boss took his wife along to greet the sales people at the meeting.) Business aircraft are business tools just as surely as are bulldozers, concrete mixers and delivery trucks. Would... -
ServiceElements: Customer Service Tip of the Week
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 20, 2013
Promoted to Supervisor from the Floor or Frontline – What Do I Do Now? By Christine Hill Management Scenario: Mike has been a maintenance technician at XYZ Aviation for 18 years. He is the most knowledgeable and dependable maintenance professional on his team. Jerry, his supervisor, recently retired after 35 years on the job. Mike was promoted to Maintenance Supervisor because of his experience and commitment to the company. Mike was of course thrilled with the promotion, but he has had some challenges. The guys on the floor are all his buddies, so it has been a tough transition from “buddy” to supervisor. It has also been difficult for Mike because he has never had any formal management training with tips on how to be a... -
Winners One And All
By Steve Smith - Tuesday March 19, 2013
This week’s “cover” story in our GSW e-newsletter recaps our three Ground Support Leaders of the Year we recognized last week at AviationPros LIVE, March 13-14, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We honored Tronair, Travis Blair and Bill Biermann, as our Product Leader, Team Leader, and Lifetime Achievement winners, respectively. And Ground Support Worldwide readers can also read more about each in cover stories to be published in the next three issues of the magazine beginning with the April edition. But let’s also recognize all the techs who took part in last week’s AMT Society Maintenance Skills Competition. We were able to provide live webcasting of the events throughout the show, plus sponsor Snap-On Industrial also... -
6th Annual AMTSociety Maintenance Skills Competition
By Ronald Donner - Thursday March 14, 2013Twenty four teams from four countries competing in fourteen different maintenance skills events began the three day AMTSociety Maintenance Skills Competition yesterday. New for this year is live video streaming of the entire event sponsored by Snap-on Industrial. Visit the AviationPros website to view the live event including regular updates and interviews each day at 1-1:15 p.m. Eastern/10-10:15 a.m. Pacific, 3-3:15 p.m. Eastern/12-12:15 p.m. Pacific, 5:30-5:45 p.m. Eastern/2:30-2:45 p.m. Pacific, and a wrap-up of the day’s events at 7:45-8:00 p.m. Eastern/4:45-5:00 p.m. Pacific. And don’t forget to tweet out support for your favorite team using Twitter hash tag AMTS2013MSC. Friday concludes the event with the awards ceremony from... -
Consider Yourself an Underdog
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 13, 2013
When an organization or a department or an individual is trying to deliver the best service, it is important to constantly ask the question, “What can we/I do better?” Great organizations, departments and individuals who excel at what they do---the ones that are listed as the best of the best---never rest on their laurels. They always look for ways to improve, even if their service is the best. They never say, “I am No. 1 and I am happy.” In our customer service workshops at ServiceElements, we have service professionals who feel they give the best service already and see no reason to change or no room to improve the service the offer. There are also service professionals who are continually driven to look for ways to get... -
A Little Attention Can Go A Long Way To Prevent Annoying Delays At Baggage Claim
By John Goglia - Tuesday March 12, 2013Among all the delays that passengers find annoying – right up there with long security lines – are the waits to pick up checked bags. Especially when passengers now pay a fee for the privilege of checking those bags. Your flight has ended and you just want to get home or to your meeting or whatever your next destination is. But you’re waiting, and sometimes waiting for half hour or more, for your bag to show up. Well, bad enough is the normal wait time for a checked bag, but to then be waiting because of a preventable baggage jam clogging the chute is truly annoying. Yes, I just experienced that at LAX, coming back from a very long flight from China. The last thing I wanted to do was wait around longer than usual for my bag... -
Customer Service Tip
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 6, 2013Customer Service is an abstract term. This is a real challenge for today’s organizations in creating customer service standards that are genuine for their customers. For managers and leaders who want to improve the service delivery of their organization, it is imperative to define the service expectations in concrete terms. Utilize real life scenarios as examples of what actions constitute good service and what actions would be bad service.