Over 500 international senior aviation executives attended the 13th annual conference that was staged in Sitges from 28 November until 1 December making it the largest annual gathering to date. Once again the scheduled one-to-one meetings pxroved a huge success with over 900 meetings arranged over a three day period and the exhibition of 40 suppliers, 12 workshop sessions and large networking area enabled all delegates to maximise their time away.
The conference speakers on day one spoke of the financial,opportunities the sector offers and highlighted the profitability of the major handlers at present but warned that margins will continue to be put under pressure. This is due to the increased competition on the ramp and a fall off in passenger volumes which may see the carriers expecting a reduction in contract charges but no cut in safety or service. Once again the handlers are being asked to square the circle and, in the popular open debate session, senior handling executives questioned this approach by many carriers when you consider that the handling charges as a percentage represent less than 15% of the carriers total costs. The panel was divided on the question on a controlled or free market – a question that arose when the new EU Ground Handling Directive was discussed. The relationship the ground handlers have with the IATA IGHC was also debated and the indication from the panel that this could be changing was welcomed by all the delegates. Safety was the main theme on the second day and excellent presentations looked at human behaviour in depth to try to understand just why ramp employees are susceptible to accidents that should be avoidable. One major handler presented their solution to the creation of a zero defect culture following a major incident. A debate on how a major carrier looked at this problem followed and an introduction to LOSA was also presented. There was unanimous agreement that the lack of accurate unattributable data on ground damage is a huge obstacle that is preventing all stakeholders from tackling this global problem. Only the ground handlers association, ASA, collects and collates data through a neutral third party. The delegates agreed that it is not appropriate for individual stakeholder associations to collect such information from the other stakeholders with direct reference to the IATA ground damage database but the industry is still searching for an acceptable solution to all parties.
The final session gave an insight into a charter carrier’s real handling needs and the conference closed with a fascinating insight into how our industry is seen by insurance underwriters and also touched on the serious financial implications that then suggested changes to Article 8 with regard to the inclusion of consequential loss to be adopted.
The annual event also included the Ramp Safety Awards presentation and congratulations to Celebi, Link Aero, Menzies and TIAS who came out on top this year. Please do send in your safety award submissions for the 2012 event and remember that flight safety begins with ground safety.