Airside talks to Gary Lewis, director of operations for CargoLogicAir, the new freighter operator start-up flying out of London Stansted, about the challenges of getting the carrier’s ground handling absolutely right
“First of all, you have to get your procedures written and in place for your aircraft activity, and the baseline for this is the information provided by the manufacturer, which for us is Boeing,” Lewis explains.
“In our CargoLogicAir loading manual, we adopted all of the primary processes of Boeing’s loading and control manual in relation to what you can put on the aircraft, how to load it, and how to use the onboard handling systems. The next stage is to try out these processes in consultation with Boeing and to ultimately get the necessary regulatory approval. We provided our loading manual to the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and gained the approvals we needed to commence B747-400 freighter operations,” he continues.
“Having completed this stage, we had to find the most effective way to disseminate this information to everyone involved in the handling of our aircraft, such as the person operating the high loader or the team responsible for using the onboard systems. This was co-ordinated by our ground operations manager in liaison with our ground handling agent and included relevant training so that once our aircraft is there, everyone knows what they are doing.
“At London Stansted, we are working with Swissport, the only handling agent at the airport, and we have also appointed them in Manchester. They provide all of our aircraft and ground handling and have considerable experience of handling B747 freighters.
“At airports where there is a choice of handlers to work with, our evaluation process begins with a written questionnaire to establish all of the key information we need to know. This includes the type of equipment the handler has, what aircraft parking options are available, and links to the warehouse both commercially and geographically because we don’t want a situation where the handling facility is 5-6 miles away from where the aircraft is parked.
“We assess each ground handling agent’s capabilities and negotiate on pricing. Once we choose the handling company we want to partner with, our relationship is governed through our handling contract and service level agreement. The real key is to find the handler that best meets all of your requirements and not to automatically just go for the cheapest option,” Lewis informs.
“We manage our handlers through our audit programme, which involves our in-house auditors visiting airports to carry out a check of what happens during the handling process for our aircraft, measured against the procedures we have put in place and agreed with our service provider. The auditors will report back and if we identify any processes or procedures that need to be rectified, we ensure this happens quickly. At the start of our operations we intend to carry out these audits after six months.
“Security is obviously a main priority and under the ACC3 Validation – security requirements for incoming cargo flying to or through the European Union – we have to ensure that cargo being loaded onto our aircraft has been processed through an unbroken security chain. This demands adherence to very robust procedures. We already have one station in our network, Nairobi, where we have already had to establish this validation, which is given by an independent EU-approved auditor.”
Moreover: “One of our other key requirements when we select a ground handling agent is to understand how they deal with damage to equipment and, most importantly, our aircraft. In Europe, my experience of handling agents is that they will alert you if an incident has occurred but this practice is not necessarily followed everywhere around the world. It is of paramount importance to us that any GHA we work with has procedures and internal training in place that explain the importance of this issue to their staff and that they have a mandatory process to report anything they see,” Lewis concludes.
CargoLogicAir was awarded its air operator’s certificate by the CAA in November last year, the same month in which it unveiled its first B747-400F. The freight carrier launched commercial operations in February this year.
