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AIRPORT SERVICES ASSOCIATION

ASA

Industry Organisation for airport ground service providers including a European Chapter representing the interests of handlers which are independent from airlines and airports.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Pablo Fabregas Martinez (Cabinet of Commissioner Adina Vălean)

14 Jun 2021 · Meeting to discuss ground handling and COVID impact.

Response to Evaluation - Groundhandling services at airports

12 Mar 2019

The Airport Services Association (ASA) - representing the global independent ground handling sector - welcomes the opportunity to engage with the Commission on the topic of Ground Services at EU Airports. We understand there will be opportunity for a more detailed engagement later, so for this particular feedback phase, we will limit ourselves to high level comments on the sector in Europe. 1. As identified in the 'Evaluation Roadmap' (Note 14), ASA, together with partners ETF and ACI (from the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee - Civil Aviation) jointly produced a detailed report on the state of play in 2018. Market access, Social conditions and Training and Quality standards were addressed. The report remains broadly valid today. 2. Competition (market access) - Those stakeholders highlighting a "need for more choice and better value among ground handling providers" are perhaps operating at airports which have yet to be truly open (Germany?). Most ground handlers in Europe operate in a very competitive environment and struggle to deliver anything approaching a decent return on investment. Ours is a low margin business. ASA remain of the view that the use of gross passenger and cargo throughput at an airport is misleading, in terms of determining the number of licences. The correct metric should be access to a contestable market. An airport with e.g. 30 million pax throughput, of which 15 million are self-handed or handled via a close relative/airport authority, provides a contestable market of 15 million not 30 million. 3, Safety - ASA is a member of the 'Expert Panel' that EASA has set up to develop the regulatory roadmap for ground handling the revised Basic Regulation. We believe this is the correct approach and would suggest any safety concerns are left to the EASA project. We support the standardisation of ground operations via IGOM (Iata Ground Ops Manual) i.e. ramp handling based on aircraft type not airline. The speed of take up by airlines (even those that do require variances) is disappointing. We note London Heathrow is seeking to mandate I~GOM by all handlers and airlines under the board heading of safety improvement. 4. Legal - separation - In theory there is separation of accounts for all providers including airlines offering 3rd part handling and airports also offering handling. We would like to see independent verification of separation and also take licence awards totally out of the hands of an airport which offers the same (computing) services. Airports still have an unfair competitive advantage via tender exemptions. This needs to be re-examined. 5. Social impact - ASA is committed to working with colleagues on the Social Dialogue Committee to ensure employees are treated respectfully and fairly. We support recent initiatives discussed in the above mentioned EASA forum to establish formally recognised vocational training qualifications to assist with e.g. social mobility. The very competitive nature of our business, airlines constant drive to reduce cost from their various providers puts pressure on both employers and employees. In summary - we believe much form the original Directive has worked well. This does not mean there are not opportunities to improve our industry and we believe the EASA initiative will do much in terms of enhancing safety and standards, There are, as can be seen from above, areas we can still look at and we welcome the chance to discuss these further in the coming months.
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Meeting with Julian King (Commissioner)

9 Jan 2017 · Aviation Security

Meeting with Silvio Mascagna (Cabinet of Commissioner Julian King)

12 Dec 2016 · Aviation Security

Meeting with Violeta Bulc (Commissioner) and

2 Jun 2016 · European sectoral social dialogue committee for Civil Aviation (SSDC)

Meeting with Joao Aguiar Machado (Director-General Mobility and Transport)

1 Jul 2015 · Groundhandling services / Aviation issues