Airside talked to three highly experienced providers of ramp operator training about the importance of such coaching, as well as how the challenges of the ramp are changing and how training should evolve as a result
Twiga Aero:
‘live and breathe’ safety
Twiga Aero is a Bangkok-based provider of airside consultancy and training services. It is an IATA-registered instructor and an IATA strategic partner, informs Maurizio Anichini, the business’ co-founder and chairman; his partner and company managing director is wife Brenda Aremo-Anichini. In addition, both partners recently became certified under the Australian Training Qualifications Framework (ATQF). Australia is one of the few countries to certify professionals in ground operations.
Twiga Aero offers a wide range of training programmes for ground operations staff and will customise them according to clients’ needs. It offers classroom-based teaching, training at clients’ place of work and ramp-based training. It is also currently developing an e-learning offering; the e-learning courses will be developed in collaboration with KRTS, a registered training organisation (RTO) in Australia.
One of Twiga Aero’s top-line courses is called the Ramp Master Workshop. It focuses on operational practices in line operations. Other products cover operational compliance to ramp processes and procedures. Three new courses for the second quarter of this year cover airside safety awareness, aviation security awareness and Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) Category 10.
While the company certainly draws some of its business through its IATA connections – though most of its clients are private and approach Twiga Aero direct, Anichini confirms – its IATA strategic partnership also has another advantage: it ensures that all of the latter’s courses are right up to date and in close alignment with IATA’s policies and recommendations. Twiga Aero, says Anichini, ensures that its training is fully attuned to current IATA Ground Operations Manual (IGOM) and IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) standards and recommended practices.
Twiga Aero’s home-based training facility is 10 minutes away from Bangkok’s huge Suvarnabhumi International Airport, but the company has also provided bespoke training in recent times to clients at their place of operations as far apart as Australia, Africa and Pakistan. Training can be given as just one part of a wider consultancy process and can vary widely in nature. And, informs Anichini: “When we operate a consulting project we ensure that our clients receive implementable elements, tools, practices and insights that tie in directly to the systems they have or should have in place.”
While most of the company’s clients are airport authorities, airlines or their service providers, some clients are very different. One such is a university in the north of Thailand, which, in wanting to establish its own course in aviation management, is in discussions with Twiga Aero for the latter to coach its professors in the relevant issues.
The aviation industry in Thailand and the wider South-east Asian region is rapidly expanding, and Twiga Aero’s location in Bangkok can tap readily into this. The number of potential ramp operator trainees is growing fast, while the importance of safety is becoming ever clearer to all ramp operators. “Everything on the ramp is intertwined, including AvSec [aviation security], operations, safety, and so on,” Anichini notes. “Clearly, safety on the ramp is a critical point and deserves attention to reduce the US$12 billion annual cost of aircraft damage, injuries and deaths on the ramp.”
What is more: “Standards in ISAGO that require systems to be in place make it even more important for relevant systems to be ‘visible’ on the ramp through workforces adhering to procedures and ensuring safe operations in that way,” he adds. The concepts of safety and security must permeate every aspect of airside operations, Anichini continues – “it must be embedded in all ramp operators’ daily life.”
Bringing the classroom to the ramp and the ramp to the classroom wherever possible, Twiga Aero seeks to make its training dynamic and – at every opportunity – fun. Twiga Aero training and consultancy is about much more than writing a training manual, Anichini says: it is about making the connection between safety systems and the ramp environment a very real one.
Only on the ramp can it be seen whether the right systems are in place and being followed, and all those working there must “live and breath” safety, he adds. Adherence to the right systems helps operators to “hear through the noise and operate within a structured approach”.
Another key aspect of the Twiga Aero training is to engender a sense of proactiveness in those so trained. “You have to increase awareness and deliver action,” Anichini insists. Individual ramp operators should be willing to act when they see a potential hazard, and not be afraid to speak up on safety and security issues.
On a related note, Anichini says: “Just as airlines refocused their attention on flying operations and divested from ground operations, we often ask ourselves why so many GSPs [ground service providers] train their own people as opposed to hiring people who are hired as trained and already qualified individuals.
“Shifting the cost and time burden to the individual who seeks to work in ground operations would ensure retention, professionalism and business continuity. Initial training programmes for ground operations workers do not have to be expensive. They have to be simple, effective and deliver professional individuals, who can ‘hit the ground running’.”
A changing environment
The changing nature of today’s ramp is affecting what training is needed and how it is delivered. “More complexities around the aircraft mean the potential for more damages and injuries,” Anichini observes. “If operators are not evolving at the same rate as the changing times by up-skilling and ensuring staff are prepared to face the new modus operandi, they may find themselves between the airline and the tarmac or between the hammer and the anvil.
“Shorter turnaround times may require more equipment and people around the aircraft, which, in turn, increases risks. Companies that analyse these processes seem to achieve better turnaround times, with fewer people conducting multiple tasks during the turnaround whilst deploying minimal equipment to avoid congestion and clutter at parking stands. Most importantly they achieve a higher rate of consistency whilst ensuring safe operations.”
As for the future: “The ramp will be run by robots,” Anichini declares. “Artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) are already coming to the ramp. “Training will be most important for the people who will program the robots. And operational knowledge will be even more important in terms of getting the processes and procedures right.”
Air Business Consultants:
it’s about being ‘ramp-responsible’
Hervé Gueusquin is an associate director at Air Business Consultants (ABC), which provides a wide range of training and consultancy services to airlines, airport operators and ground handlers. In fact, it currently offers more than 100 courses in relation to ground service provision.
In terms of ramp services, ABC provides training in relation to Ramp Basics, Baggage Sorting, Load Control, Turnaround Coordination, Aircraft Departure, Aircraft Arrival, Pushback, Towing, Marshalling, GSE training, Breaker, FOD, and much more.
Gueusquin is certainly of the opinion that there is now a greater focus on many aspects of ramp safety than there might have been in the past. For example, he notes: “There is a greater emphasis as ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization] Annex 19 on safety management is now fully in force not only at the airline level but also for GSPs.”
Plus: “The new model ISAGO 2018 is now integrating this as a mandatory requirement to get the accreditation,” he observes.
“Training is a key issue and due to high staff turnover in the airline industry and a clear emphasis on qualified staff, GSPs now have an obligation to train,” Gueusquin continues.
“Every handler is a potential customer, especially in Africa,” he says. Not coincidentally, then, ABC now has a foothold there, having established a presence in Chad, which Gueusquin describes as “an ideal location in the centre of Africa”.
Adapting to evolving hazards
Gueusquin agrees with Anichini that the nature of the hazards on a modern airport ramp is changing all the time. For one thing, Gueusquin points out: “More and more equipment is now electrical, reducing the noise it makes on the ramp. Because Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) these days includes earplugs, a new threat now comes from the [quieter] equipment itself,” he suggests.
And, looking head: “Ramp operations will be driven by processes that allow for quicker turnarounds, all about the need for speed.” Furthermore, the sense of loyalty among staff for their employers seems likely to diminish, he suggests.
“Hence, human factors training should be the first course people take before going on to vocational ramp courses,” Gueusquin argues.
“The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is clear on this,” he says. According to EU/EASA ORO.GEN.110(c/e), GSPs must ensure that all personnel assigned to, or directly involved in, ground operations:
• Are properly trained and instructed
• Have demonstrated their abilities in their particular duties
• Are aware of their responsibilities
• Are aware of the relationship of their duties to the operation as a whole
“So it’s not only about training, it’s also about being made ramp-responsible. ABC provides the perfect training for this with clear and video examples. We teach by example, not only with words,” Gueusquin concludes.
Located in the heart of Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport and at Chad’s N’Djamena Airport, ABC can provide both local courses and in-house courses.
RTITB Airside:
‘our mission is to save lives and reduce injuries’
RTITB Airside has been involved with airside operations departments at various international airfields since 2010, including at the two largest airports in the UK. It has also worked with the engineering departments of a number of prestigious UK airlines for more than 30 years, informs Nick Welch, the company’s technical director.
He explains: “Our mission is to save lives and reduce injuries in airside operations by improving the training delivered to equipment drivers and those working in and around the airside environment.”
RTITB provides airside services including bespoke course development, carrying out training compliance and safety audits, training the trainer/instructor, training airfield supervisors/managers and providing accreditation services including the external verification and certification of driver training in relation to accidental damage protection (ADP).
Welch is in agreement with fellow ramp operator training providers such as Anichini and Gueusquin when it comes to considering the potentially hazardous nature of the apron area. “The ramp is a high pressure, multifaceted environment and therefore the risks when working in this environment are high,” he says.
What’s more, “There are much better communication methods available now, so therefore there is a general heightened awareness of the roles and responsibilities of employees as well as of their individual accountability. Be it an operator on the ramp or a manager sat in head office, everyone shares the responsibility to ensure their own safety and the safety of their colleagues.
“In the airports that RTITB deals with there is a change occurring in that there appears to be a willingness to look at innovative new training standards not only to improve ramp safety and efficiency but also to provide the operators with the ability to prove that the good work they do is documented and stored effectively. Then, should they be required to do so, evidence of their training, control mechanisms and standards can be produced.”
Training is clearly going to be a big part of the armoury of those looking to minimise the dangers of the ramp, and training in the use of the equipment currently employed on the apron is a big part of that. This is where the likes of RTITB come in.
Says Welch: “Using tried and tested models from other industries involved with workplace transport, it is essential that any employee required to operate equipment has a fundamental understanding of the equipment, how it functions, how it operates and also of its associated components.” Given that, he argues, employees should be trained and tested on:
• Their competency to check equipment over prior to its use in order to ensure that its mechanical state is good
• Their ability to safely conduct a series of operational skills efficiently
• Their ability to retain a level of associated knowledge about correct equipment operation, the safety factors involved in the equipment operation and also their own responsibilities regarding general health and safety
RTITB Airside training programmes provide operators with a safe and fundamental understanding of the equipment they are expected to operate, Welch explains. Essentially, he says, there are three stages of training required before competency of the operator can be considered (and assessed separately to the provision of basic training):
• Operators should be provided with the skills they need for the safe operation of each equipment type that they are expected to operate; this is called Basic Training. However, on the ramp there are many different manufacturers of the same type of equipment so after basic training each operator must be shown the specifics of the equipment type in which the equipment manufacture, make or model is different to the one(s) encountered during basic training.
• In addition, operators should be trained on how their equipment interacts with the many different aircraft types seen on the airfield; this is called Specific Training.
• Once the specific training has been conducted, the operator should be shown how to operate the equipment in a live environment, covering amongst other things the environmental differences the operator might encounter, such as night and day and the pressures of the live environment; essentially, can they do their job? This is called Familiarisation Training.
• Finally, a competency assessment should be completed to officially ‘sign off’ the individual as able to do their job safely and efficiently. This approach is always the same but the environments, policies and procedures are unique to each airline, handling agent or airfield, and these characteristics are incorporated into the course materials or services taken up by the customer. In addition, each airport or airfield has unique challenges in terms of risks, efficiency and safety, so unique elements of each service can be utilised to build something totally suited to the needs of the customer and resolve their issues.
A lot of the equipment types are quite straightforward to use, Welch, says. ADP requirements in the UK stipulate that at least a DVLA (Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency) category B licence is required, so operators will have some degree of mechanical sympathy, hand/eye co-ordination. However, this should not be taken for granted, he insists.
Operators may have been trained on other equipment types on the ramp, or they may have even taught themselves, Welch continues – but RTITB basic training programmes concentrate on how the machine handles and on safe manoeuvring capabilities. In addition, they provide information on inspection regimes for the particular equipment type allowing the operator to make an informed decision on whether or not the equipment is safe to operate. Therefore the optimal approach is to utilise the existing knowledge and skills of the operator and provide them with the fundamentals of safe and efficient operation to a testable standard.
Currently, within the airport environment RTITB is mainly dealing with in-house training providers, Welch says. “There is a decision to make regarding who delivers training, and as with most things in life there are advantages and disadvantages. Both have the ability to provide excellent levels of training but also have drawbacks. Whichever route is chosen, customers should always make sure that the person delivering the training has a current and bona fide instructor qualification relevant to the industry, has documented competence on the machine type required for the training delivery and also has up-to-date and relevant training and assessment materials.”
Pressure
Welch agrees that the changing nature of today’s ramp operations is affecting the threats to life and limb on the ramp. “There is without doubt a great deal of pressure on ramp supervisors and operatives to get the job done on time,” he says. “There is a lot of new equipment available on the market with many technological advancements and aids fitted. These machines, however, are only as good as the operators using them – employers need to understand that these aids are additional systems to assist the operators and do not negate the need for or replace training requirements.
“In many cases, the training the manufacturer provides when a machine is delivered does not amount to adequate basic training, it is more in line with specific training and can leave the operator without all of the information they need in order to operate the equipment both efficiently and safely.”
The ramp of the future will differ from today’s, and that too will affect how the industry should go about ramp safety training. “There is a lot of talk about automation on the ramp and airside in general,” says Welch. “There is a lot to be gained by looking at how other logistic industries are using automation to great effect, especially where repetitive and labour-intensive tasks are required, but it should be remembered that there will always be the requirement for a ‘real person’ to be trained and fully conversant with the task(s) required.
“What also needs to be remembered is that although training can be perceived as costly and time-consuming, it brings so much to an organisation, ranging from the obvious compliance and safety benefits but also efficiency and a sense of belonging and ownership for the employees.”
