Weekly posts reviewing Ground Support Equipment, Manufacturers and Professional GSE Users.
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No Soup For You!
By Steve Smith - Tuesday May 21, 2013
Or clean planes, for that matter. And don’t even mention unloading cargo and luggage. We posted an interesting news story yesterday about LAN Airlines suspending its flights in Argentina as the result of a contract dispute with its one-and-only ground handler, the state-run Intercargo. For one reason or another, we couldn’t get scenes from the old “Seinfeld” show out of our heads. Back in 2010, Argentina’s government helped prop up another state-run business, in this case, Aerolinas Argentinas by passing a law that gave the ailing flag carrier priority to use all the country’s passenger bridges. That law changed a bit to allow carriers to use the bridges for up to two flights a day. That might work for foreign carriers... -
The 800-Pound Gorilla In The Room …
By Steve Smith - Tuesday May 14, 2013Last week, a group of wheelchair attendants employed by PrimeFlight Aviation Services, asked the Occupational Health & Safety Administration to inspect working conditions at Philadelphia International Airport. The complaints, filed with OSHA’s Philadelphia regional office, allege violations of the federal Air Carrier Access Act and ask the Transportation Department to impose fines and order US Airways, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines to force PrimeFlight to correct the problems. Specifically, the workers allege that they do not receive training on how to help handicapped passengers, are exposed to blood and other bodily fluids without protection and are forced to use faulty equipment. Furthermore, the complaints contend that the... -
IATA Refines Its Ground Damage Database
By Steve Smith - Tuesday May 7, 2013We're attending this week’s IATA Ground Handling Conference in Vancouver, and ended the first day with a 90-minute workshop on the trade group’s refinements to its Ground Damage Database. “Airlines have collected data on accidents in many different buckets on their own,” said David Anderson, head of operational safety for British Airways and chairman of the GDDB. “It’s not a question of the quantity of the data, but the quality of the data.” The GDDB was originally launched in 2011 to act as a better funnel for the reasons and causes for aircraft damage. IATA spent time that same year to make sure the data was reported consistently so that it could be used to better measure the progress made against what is largely... -
The Other Side To The Swissport Ukraine Saga
By Steve Smith - Tuesday April 30, 2013
There were two press conferences recently with Swissport and Ukraine International Airlines telling their respective sides of recent court action in Ukraine that ruled in favor of UIA. Up until that time, we heard more from Swissport than we did from UIA. We'll have more in our May issue on the story. In the meantime, here's a Q&A we conducted with Evgeniya Satskaya, UIA's corporate press secretary. Q: I understand that UIA went to court based on a mere discussion of a further capital investment that would result in the dissolution of UIA’s holding. A: It was not a discussion. On March 6th 2012 SPI held the GSM where SPI voted in favor of dilution of UIA’s shareholding in SPU, that was the default under the Participant's... -
Readers Sound Off About High Turnover
By Steve Smith - Tuesday April 23, 2013Earlier this month, John Goglia asked a simple question in a blog after he read the news about a deicing incident in Canada: Is high turnover on the ramp causing simple errors? We posted John’s blog on several LinkedIn groups, including our own, and received almost 20 responses. Have a look at a handful of responses: “ Without a shadow of doubt , yes!! In the last 20 years I have seen a shift from Full-Time employment to that of Part-Time Employment. Thus, what was once seen as a career working on the Apron and climbing the ladder. We now see the role as nothing more than a ‘job’, and one that has to be supplemented by another Part-Time job in another industry just to make ends meet. Combine this with a sever lack of...
