Geneva/Zurich, July 6, 2009 – Swissport Geneva is reporting two successes. The Geneva arm of the provider of ground services to the aviation sector has had its operating license extended for an additional seven years to 2016 by airport authority AIG; and Swissport Geneva will also be jointly founding a new company named GVAssistance to offer special services at the airport, initially for a five-year period. Both licenses were secured following open tender invitations.
The awarding of operating licenses is never a foregone conclusion, even for operators that have been established for years at the location concerned. In the dynamic and fiercely-contested aviation business, it takes a major effort to maintain (and preferably further expand) even an existing position. In view of this, Swissport Geneva is delighted to have obtained a seven-year extension of its present license to provide the full range of passenger and cargo ground handling services at Geneva Airport, and to have done so against international competition.
GVAssistance: a new company for a new business activity.
In parallel to the new operating license, Geneva airport authority AIG also invited tenders for a new “special services” business. Here, too, Swissport was awarded the five-year license on offer, as the majority shareholder (together with a further business partner) in the winning submission. The new company, which will be called GVAssistance and will start operations with some 70 personnel, will focus on providing special assistance services for disabled travelers and unaccompanied minors. GVAssistance will draw its workforce from existing Geneva personnel, and is scheduled to commence operations Nov. 1.
“We are extremely pleased with this double success,” says Ernest Hochuli, senior vice president and managing director of Swissport Geneva. “In awarding us these two long-term operating licenses, Geneva Airport has not only underlined its confidence in our company. It has also, and above all, reasserted its faith in its own successful strategy of ensuring faultless ground services. I am delighted, too, for everyone at Swissport Geneva who helps us consistently deliver such top-quality services every day of their working lives.”
