Bernhard Scholz is a senior executive manager, responsible for fleet management and GSE – engineering at Fraport Ground Services, handler at Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest airport
Under Scholz’s wing are approximately 15,000 pieces of equipment, everything from bicycles to large pushback tractors. That inventory incorporates more than 1,500 motorised ground handling units and 10,000 items of towed GSE. A workforce of some 6,000 people is employed to use this equipment and perform all their various handling tasks.
Scholz explains that Fraport typically spends some 15-20 million euros (US$17-22 million) a year on GSE, while the value of its fleet is somewhere in the region of 250-270 million euros ($280-300 million). Maintenance costs typically add up to another 20 milllion euros ($22 million).
Fraport’s GSE inventory is pretty stable in terms of overall size at the moment, he informs, although efforts are being to rationalise it wherever possible. An important tool in this regard will be the new TWS fleet management system; TWS stands for Telemetriedaten optimiertes Wartungssteuerungssystem, or telemetry data-optimised maintenance system; the software is from the Aachen-headquartered company, Inform.
“We are well ahead of our time. By 2030, systems like this will be optimising processes at all airports as an integral element of ground handling,” Scholz says. “The road from our first attempts at GPS-based location in 2001 to where we are now has been a long one. Building on the usual GPS to localise location-related data, we added several special features, such as new algorithms, to the software that runs and controls TWS now.”
All the motorised handling equipment used by Fraport Ground Services will be connected to TWS. And the system will also be linked to data from the airport operator’s flight information system in time. As of July this year, 500 Fraport GSE units had been fitted with onboard TWS.
Acquisition strategies
While each unit typically has a lifetime of between 10 and 15 years, such is the scale of the Fraport GSE inventory that Ground Services is constantly on the lookout for new acquisitions. Ground Services buys its GSE, rather than leases, Scholz confirms – the workload, the demanding operating environment at Frankfurt has made purchasing GSE a more cost-effective option, he informs.
Of course, over the years, Fraport has developed relationships with favoured suppliers of GSE. “They always know what we need,” Scholz points out, but the need to retain that degree of competition in equipment delivery is not forgotten. Thus, more than one GSE manufacturer is involved in the supply of any given piece of equipment used by Fraport Ground Services at Frankfurt; for example, Germany’s Schopf and MULAG as well as Spain’s EINSA all supply tractors to the handler. Of course, with potentially as many as 6,000 people needing to be trained on any given model, it’s vital that not too many different manufacturers’ equipment is deployed on the ramp.
Other drivers affecting GSE acquisition strategy include the need for environmental consideration. As a result, Fraport has invested heavily in electric GSE (including conveyer belts, loaders, ground power units, cars and much else) as well as hybrid units such as baggage tractors.
The need to handle the giant A380 at Frankfurt – it’s a very regular visitor – also meant some changes to be made within the GSE fleet. Fortunately, Scholz was involved at the very earliest stages in discussions regarding the GSE that would need to be developed to handle the world’s largest passenger aircraft. He, like everyone else, was keen to minimise the amount of new GSE that would be needed, and in this aim they seem to have succeeded – in the main, all that was required, he recalls, was new, heavier pushbacks with increased engine power, a new upper deck catering vehicle, minor changes to pallet loaders, and modified ground power supply provision.
