Historically, handlers have been at the beck and call of their airline customers – which is not surprising, considering the fact that traditionally airlines owned the handlers. But today’s independent handler has a tough job, dealing with multiple airlines, each with its own processes, procedures and requirements.
To complicate things further, aviation organisations such as IATA, ICAO and, on the cargo side, FIATA and the Global Shippers Forum all make demands on handlers – and yet the handler has all too frequently been left out of negotiations and discussions, until now.
“Handlers need a voice,” emphasises Martin Meyer, secretary-general and treasurer of the Airport Services Association, launched last year to represent handlers in the air transport industry. “We need a strong, well organised, professional trade association.”
The EU directive on ground handling led to the formation of the Independent Aviation Handlers Association, which quickly became the International Aviation Handlers Association, but, says Meyer, by the time he joined the board as representative of his then employer, Swissport, IAHA had become a little stale. “It had no oomph and not much benefit for members.”
Meyer’s long experience in aviation made him the ideal person to transform IAHA into a useful and influential organisation. Meyer joined Swiss Air as an aeronautical engineer in November 1981, moving into technical sales, promoting the company’s maintenance services, before landing up in ground operations, where he was head of ground handling contracts until Swiss Air collapsed in 2010.
“I then moved to Swissport, which started as a Swissair project,” Meyer explains. “But in 2010, Joseph In-Albon, former CEO of Swissport, started a new, small handling company, Airline Assistance Switzerland (AAS), in Zurich. I joined him as commercial director.”
When Meyer and his colleagues decided to re-structure IAHA, he persuaded AAS to allow him to work part-time, so he could devote time to AAS. “IAHA was an all-volunteer organisation,” he says. “Its members had their own companies to run. Because of this, decisions were not always implemented.The organisation needed a professional leader to dedicate time to promoting it and to ensuring decisions were implemented.”
Under his leadership, the ASA has already achieved an impressive number of successes, ensuring the handler is catered for in the IATA Safety Audit on Ground Operations (ISAGO), the IATA Ground Operator Manual (IGOM) and the Airport Handling Manual (IAM), which will be published later this year.
“The IGOM and ISAGO are new publications resulting from the harmonisation of handling procedures,” explains Meyer. “Handlers have to comply with each airline’s written ground handling procedures, and it is rare that two airlines have exactly the same guideline for the same procedure. For example, if you take 10 different airlines, there will be 10 different procedures for pushing back an A320. However, the task is really the same and staff don’t pay any attention to the differences in the airline manuals because they know how to do the job. But if the handler is audited, the auditors will insist that each manual is followed to the letter. Therefore, we need standardised procedures so there is only one official way of doing any task.”
ISAGO, which is already available, transfers responsibility for auditing handlers from the airlines to IATA, as Meyer explains. “Each airline carries out its own audit of its handlers,” he says. “So if a handler works for 15 airlines, it will be subject to 15 audits. Why can’t IATA do just one audit? Not all airlines have accepted a single audit yet, but the benefit for the airline is the same as that for the handler: it speeds up handling, increases efficiency and reduces cost.”
ASA is also turning its attention to the Airline Handlers Manual, which has been written by four or five different working groups, made up of airlines and handlers. There has been no coordination between the working groups and no harmonisation between the AHM, IGOM and ISAGO, but Meyer has offered ASA’s services in standardising the document.
Achieving standardised handling procedures is a big and time-consuming task, but ASA’s work does not stop there. “We are also working on the cargo side. IATA, FIATA, the International Air Cargo Association and the Global Shippers’ Forum have formed the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG) to improve coordination between the four organisations – but there was no representative from the handling side in the new group. ASA has set up an ASA Cargo Council to coordinate the cargo aspects of handling and to bring our experience and advice to the GACAG.”
Another ASA project, the e-procurement platform, will allow handlers to buy equipment from their colleagues when it is launched in the second half of this year. “Sometimes a handler has too much capacity and unused assets, while a competitor might need extra capacity,” Meyer explains. “Until now, procurement has largely been provided by a third party broker, which charges a fee for fixing the deal. Why can’t the ASA do it for nothing? We want a member to be able to say ‘I need two ground power units and one conveyor belt’; if another member has spare power units or conveyor belts, it can sell or lease the equipment to the handler needing these items.”
Liability will, Meyer believes, become the next issue for ASA to address. “At the moment, the industry works according to the IATA standard ground handler agreement, which was developed when airlines owned the handlers. Liability is capped at US$1.5m. But some cargoes – such as dangerous goods – can be worth ten times that, excluding any repairs to the cost of the aircraft or equipment, should there be an accident.”Insurers say the handler should bear the entire responsibility and liability should be raised, on the basis that it will encourage handlers to take more care with cargo. But handlers always take care: they don’t want to damage aircraft or anything else. If there’s an accident, it is just that – an accident. The ASA needs to lobby on behalf of its members to ensure liability does not go sky high.”
Meyer is also making sure that handlers are represented in ICAO, an organisation with extensive rule-making capability but no handler guidelines. ASA needs to be granted ‘adviser’ status by ICAO so we have input in their decisions affecting handlers.”
With Meyer in charge, ASA members have nothing to worry about.
