Complementing Airside magazine are a range of other offerings we provide that help to bring the industry together to share views and experience. A number of GSE&RAMP-OPS Podcasts are now available in which aviation industry stalwarts offer their thoughts on issues of relevance and interest…
The GSE&RAMP-OPS Podcasts were first made available in mid-October, with the last of an initial series of seven programmes posted by the end of that month. They are all entirely free to watch, and available at https://evaintmedia.com/theevapodcast/
They are hosted by Chris Notter, a name that is well known to just about everyone in the aviation business, especially those who have been involved in airline and cargo operations, or in handling. Each podcast sees Chris welcome two or three guests – all recorded remotely, of course, because of Covid-19 precautions – who discuss subjects that are of importance to the airside community.
These issues are all of contemporary relevance, pandemic or no pandemic, but many of them take on a particular importance in these challenging times.
The first of the series relates to effective GSE resource planning, and features Steve Cannon, head of global fleet management at ground services provider Swissport, John Edmunds, head of fleet management EU at Swissport, and Paul Holmes, managing director of telematics systems provider Smarter Asset Management. Cannon and Edmunds discuss how a GSE operator can ensure that its fleet is of the optimal size for its operations, while Holmes explains how telematics supports effective asset utilisation, not only for the actual GSE operator but also how it also benefits their customer by optimising fleet size and deployment.
The second episode concerns preventing aircraft and GSE damage: namely, eliminating ramp rash. It brings together Robert Powell, vice president technical services at globally active service provider dnata, and Colin Temple, director, ramp operations and maintenance for handler Bangkok Flight Services (BFS).
Episode 3 continues this theme, assessing the issues relating to preventing aircraft damage with particular regard to the GSE safety approach systems that are now becoming so much more common, as well as in terms of the guidance provided by the International Air Transport Association’s Airport Handling Manual – especially the provisions of IATA AHM-913. It features the wise words of Steve Savage, senior analyst ground operations at IATA, and Bibin George Samuel, group GSE manager at National Aviation Services (NAS).
Equipment pooling is the subject of the fourth programme in the series, as Liam Bolger, head of airside operations at London Luton Airport, and Gennaro Carcassa, UK station coordinator for GH London Ground Handling Services, discuss how multiple ground services providers can improve ramp operating efficiencies and cut down on congestion on airport aprons by sharing their GSE.
Gokmen Aritay, chief operating officer at Limac Kosovo Airport, and David Uclés, GSE management & services contracts at Iberia, next offer their views on the pressing need that now exists for airside charging infrastructure to support expanding fleets of electric GSE. Is the lack of that infrastructure holding back the efforts of those handlers who are wanting to go green?
Through-life GSE capability management and issues relating to total cost of ownership (TCO) are the concern of Episode 6 of the GSE&RAMP-OPS Podcast series. Paul Drever, general manager GSE engineering & standards at ground services provider Menzies Aviation, and Gerd Van Damme, chief asset officer at leasing specialist TCR, discuss how a GSE operator should be calculating an item of equipment’s TCO before acquiring it, and assessing how that cost can be minimised.
The final programme concerns how data-driven approaches can be implemented to best ensure safety on the ramp. Witold Jaroslaw Proszynski, manager occupational health, safety & emergency at Qatar Aviation Services, and David Storey, senior manager safety for Qatar Airways, look at the value of passing data between handlers, airlines and airport operators in relation to any unwanted incident on the ramp, and on sharing safety records more generally.
The GSE&RAMP-OPS Podcast series is sponsored by Aviaco, dBD Communications, JBT, Sinepower and Textron GSE.
The podcasts have been hailed a big success, and more of them will be made available as time passes: another vehicle for keeping us all both informed and engaged during this incredibly difficult period.
