Smashing all previous records, this year’s conference attracted over 300 delegates to Bangkok.
Building on the success of past conferences, the March event drew those involved in the growth of Asian business. Two days of papers, a comprehensive exhibition, a day on SMS and plenty of opportunities for networking added up to a useful period out of the office for all who attended.
Brendan Sobie of CAPA started the proceedings with an overview of what all agree is a dynamic and growing region in terms of aviation. Noting the LCC input, China’s massive market potential and the rise of India, he drew the audience’s attention to the emergence of no-frills carriers emanating from legacy airlines.
BFS’s Javed Malik focussed on what made for a successful relationship between handler and airline. Should we say GHA – or service provider? The distinction is important, he argued, as are the values of trust, knowledge and experience. Language is vital in all this, as was the degree of diplomacy required in saying “no”.
This negative was subsequently picked up on by Phil Bowell, who recently ran Bahrain Airport Services and who now is consulting. The thread of his discourse related to possible changes to IATA’s rôle in the light of changes within the aviation sector. The current relevance of the IGHC was questioned and the audience were encouraged to vote, via hand held devices, on 20 questions which included ISAGO, working groups and the IGHC and their benefits (or otherwise) to the handler. The findings may be downloaded at www.groundhandling.com/ighcvoting.html
Cargo had a useful profile at the event, with Swissport’s John Batten commenting on ASA’s philosophy in this respect and how it was working with GACAG. Henrik Ambak talked on the challenges facing the freight sector and related the success story that has seen Cargolux employ the Edifly solution to cut messaging costs. For Marcel Hoiting, at Cargonaut, it was the advances in smartcard technology that were of interest, advances that have drastically cut paperwork: he cited a 25% reduction in cargo handling forms in this context.
Hactl’s Lilian Chan was able to share her enthusiasm for COSAC Plus which has transformed the company’s freight handling at Hong Kong: with responsibility for 70% of the airport’s cargo throughput, a hi-tech solution was absolutely vital.
Craig McBride of dnata stepped in to deliver a paper on training and was able to comment on how ground damage required closer definition: quite often it was not the fault of the handler.
Crisis management opened the proceedings on the second day, when John Bailey of Kenyon explained the steps and protocols required in dealing with the unexpected. He was followed by Amadeus’s Yannick Beunardeau, who discoursed on the dwindling human check-in requirement and the changing face of the modern airport. Rounding off the two days were presentations from AirAsia’s Tassapon Bijleveld on the secret of successful low cost carrier handling and the airport operator/ground handler relationship, detailed by Delhi International’s Ashwani Khanna.