Kevin Chin, CEO of Ground Team Red (GTR), tells Airside about the launch of the control centre at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and how its multi-faceted capabilities will ‘revolutionise’ ground handling
Ground Team Red Sdn Bhd (GTR) is a joint venture between [Singapore-headquartered handler and air catering services provider] SATS and [Malaysian low-cost carrier] AirAsia Berhad; it commenced operations on 1 November 2017.
GTR aims to maintain the highest quality product by embracing technology (innovation and digitalisation) to improve the productivity of our personnel, thus enhancing service level, with a strong emphasis on maintaining high safety standards.
GTR provides a comprehensive range of ground handling services such as: guest handling, baggage services, aircraft handling, cargo handling and security services.
Currently, GTR has a presence in 17 airports, and it handles an average of 475 flights daily.
What form did the November launch of the new digital control centre take?
The launch of the control centre was officiated by the minister of transport in Malaysia, YB Loke Siew Fook, and GTR CEO Kevin Chin, along with AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, GTR chairman Bo Lingam, SATS EVP [executive vice president] Yacoob Piperdi, SATS CDO [chief development officer] Albert Pozo, AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat, AirAsia X Malaysia CEO Benyamin Ismail and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad Acting Group CEO Raja Azmi Raja Nazuddin.
The minister was briefed on the key highlights of the control centre by the project manager, Fairul Azriq, alongside GTR’s guest services and ramp personnel, who demonstrated the various innovations that will be used operationally in conjunction with the control centre.
What capabilities does the digital control centre offer GTR and what difference will it make to your efficiency?
This fully digitalised control centre will allow GTR to track aircraft handling by converging real-time digital information on passenger boarding, baggage reconciliation and ramp loading activities through a digital dashboard, with the target of an aircraft turnaround of 25 minutes.
In digitalising operations, guest services personnel will use a smartphone to execute the gate boarding process, allowing staff to board passengers conveniently while tracking the gate boarding process in real time efficiently and accurately.
The same smartphones will be deployed at the baggage carousel for baggage reconciliation and also [for] the e-readback ramp loading system to provide an organised view of all baggage and cargo loads for the flight. This will improve safety by ensuring accurate aircraft weight and balance readings for flight planning purposes as well as eliminate paper-based loading instructions, which are difficult to manage at night and in bad weather conditions.
GTR staff will also now use their handheld devices to automatically clock in when they report for work and receive their flight assignments automatically. This saves time for staff to meet their flights without the need to report to the office.
Another key feature of the control centre is a virtual reality training chamber incorporating six modules – cargo ramp, tech ramp (lavatory), tech ramp (water service), tech ramp (air-conditioning), tech ramp (ground power unit) and aircraft marshalling – that will allow ground personnel to simulate and safely conduct real world scenarios and training exercises without the need for aircraft availability.
The control centre will allow for the efficient allocation of manpower and aims to maximise the productivity of ground personnel, emphasising safety standards and minimising cost.
Was the development of the control centre long in the making? Does it represent a significant investment for your owners/investors?
GTR has set RM35 million (US$8.4 million) aside to improve our service delivery, which spans across Guest Happiness, Cargo, and Ramp operations. This control centre is part of this investment to modernise and bring innovation to ground handling operations.
This digital control centre is a first for Malaysia, and will revolutionise how ground operations services are delivered. The centre will allow us to serve our clients better through live information sharing of aircraft status while simplifying processes, particularly at gate boarding, where it improves the gate boarding experience for passengers and improves hub passenger connectivity through Kuala Lumpur.
Do you have further developments of the system planned?
The next step would be to infuse artificial intelligence to automate passenger processing, interlined by destination and transit time, to maximise and enhance parking bay allocation and immigration for the passengers’ comfort. GTR will also be working closely with the Malaysian Airports community to use data for guest convenience, and enhancement of connectivity.
Modernising ground operations is also critical as a means of attracting a younger and diverse talent pool. The use of smart devices at key areas of operations will not only bring a lot of benefit to the airport operations personnel, but also to airline customers, who can access live digital data via their mobile phones at their own convenience.
This will also eliminate a lot of manual paperwork, thus reducing our carbon footprint where we can.
