LONDON HEATHROW ■ Swissport UK and Aer Lingus Ground Handling team up “We want to be a new bench- mark in ground handling!” International customer journal 10–11 Roger Cato BAA Heathrow’s Managing Direc- tor on current con- cerns and future plans. 1–5 Noel Earley Swissport UK’s Commercial Manager is delight- ed at achievements to date. 6 Urs von Euw ADAPT is the most advanced planning tool in the ground handling world. 15 Joseph In Albon Swissport aims to be world number one in service quality and cus- tomer dedication. Swissport International Ltd. Issue 4 April 2000 Following its merger with Aer Lingus Ground Handling, Swiss- port UK Ltd. is now a key player at London’s Heathrow Airport. SWISSPORT UK and Aer Lingus Ground Handling have long had a lot in common: both companies are renowned for their professional high-quality services. The new-look Swissport UK Ltd. now provides ramp and passenger handling services at the airport’s Terminals 1, 2 and 3; and it may well extend these to Ter- minal 4 if there is sufficient customer demand. Noel Earley, who, as Com- mercial Manager for Sales and Mar- Following its incorporation of Aer Lingus’ ground handling operations and its skilled and experienced staff, Swissport UK now boasts an organisation at London Heathrow that numbers over nine hundred personnel.
Transcript
LONDON HEATHROW ■ Swissport UK and Aer Lingus Ground Handling team up
“We want to be a new bench-mark in ground handling!”
International customer journal
10–11Roger CatoBAA Heathrow’sManaging Direc-tor on current con-cerns and futureplans.
1–5Noel EarleySwissport UK’sCommercialManager is delight-ed at achievementsto date.
6Urs von EuwADAPT is themost advancedplanning toolin the groundhandling world.
15Joseph In AlbonSwissport aims tobe world numberone in servicequality and cus-tomer dedication.
Swissport International Ltd.Issue 4
April 2000
Following its merger with AerLingus Ground Handling, Swiss-port UK Ltd. is now a key player atLondon’s Heathrow Airport.
S W I S S P O R T U K and AerLingus Ground Handling have longhad a lot in common: both companiesare renowned for their professional
high-quality services. The new-lookSwissport UK Ltd. now providesramp and passenger handling servicesat the airport’s Terminals 1, 2 and 3;
and it may well extend these to Ter-minal 4 if there is sufficient customerdemand. Noel Earley, who, as Com-mercial Manager for Sales and Mar-
Following its incorporation of Aer Lingus’ ground handling operations and its skilled and experienced staff, Swissport UK now boasts an organisation at London Heathrow thatnumbers over nine hundred personnel.
PA S S E N G E R S E R V I C E S
“Setting higher goals”
“We now offer passenger servicesat three of Heathrow’s four termi-nals. At Terminal 2 we have theformer Swissport team,which hasnow been expanded with the addi-tion of 30 former Aer Lingus staff.The operations at the other twoterminals are performed by the ex-Aer Lingus team.It’s always a spe-cial situation when a companytakes over another that’s nine timesas big. But I think everybody rea-lises now that working for Swiss-port offers some excellent oppor-tunities. For me, coming from theSwissport side, it’s been a very in-teresting experience.Our frontlinestaff are currently working inthree different uniforms – lightblue for Qualiflyer Group cus-tomers,dark blue for Swissport cli-ents, and the dedicated uniformsspecified by some customer air-lines. And thanks to our ServiceLevel Agreements, the results ofall these activities can be clearlyquantified, too.”
Jon Neal, Passenger Manager
keting, is responsible for all qualityand contractual issues, is pleased andproud to draw on the expertise andsupport of the former Aer Lingusmanagement team. He was also hap-py that very few Aer Lingus staff leftfollowing the merger (none were laidoff). Earley, who himself has 33 yearsof Aer Lingus experience at Heath-row under his belt, is delighted atwhat has been achieved so far in theless than three months that he hasbeen with Swissport UK: “We werefaced with a company that had grownfrom about a hundred to nine hun-dred employees virtually overnight,”he explains.“We had to move quicklyto build up our organisation and ourmotivation, to make sure we couldmaintain our high service standards.”
Quality and dedication:a powerful combinationSwissport UK made a conscious ef-fort to familiarise its new employeeswith its own philosophy, values andobjectives and those of its parentcompany Swissport International,holding a series of social events forthe former Aer Lingus personnel andtheir families.“Our employees under-stand now that the impact of globalalliances on our business urged us toteam up with a strong partner who iscompatible with the skills and thespirit of our people,”explains Person-nel Services Manager John Mead.Mead also feels that the two compa-nies are an excellent fit in terms of
to broaden its customer base.Heathrow is currently served by 88airlines – a massive market with hugepotential. There are limitations,though. In reality, only around 20 air-lines can be seriously consideredpotential Swissport customers.All the
2 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000
S W I S S P O R T W O R L D W I D E
H E AT H R O W A I R P O R T A I R L I N E S H A N D L E D B Y S W I S S P O R T U K LT D .
Aer Lingus Air China Air India Air NamibiaAlliance Arkia Austrian Airlines CrossairEthiopian Airlines El Al Ghana Airways IcelandairJapan Airlines Korean Air Malaysia Airlines SabenaSingapore Airlines Swissair TAP Air Portugal Uzbekistan Airways
their shared work ethic and qualityphilosophy.“What we need to do nowis convince our existing and potentialcustomers of the broad range of ser-vices that our new combined compa-ny can offer,”Earley adds. In a secondphase, Swissport UK will be looking
The new team offers a winning combination for the new company’s customers. From left to right: Gerry Johnston, Customer ServicesManager, Philip R. Thomas, Ramp Services Coordinator, and Tony O’Shea, Ramp Services Manager.
Check-in agents Sheetal Maher (left) and Anita Waibel proudly model their brand-new Qualiflyer Group uniforms. They, too, arehappy to be part of the new Swissport team.
The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000 – Swissreporter 3
S W I S S P O R T W O R L D W I D E
others are either tied in their choiceof ground handling partner by theiralliance activities, or have their ownground services unit. There is, how-ever, a clear trend among airlines toentrust their ground services to in-dependent specialist companies.Swiss-port UK also sees some potentialemerging through airlines movingfrom one alliance to another, and inthe highly encouraging growth of theQualiflyer Group.Carl Grey,Managerfor Qualiflyer Group Airlines atHeathrow, is convinced that this latterdevelopment can provide SwissportUK with a strong customer base:“It’s a challenging job with a lot ofcompetition,” the former AOC Chair-man in Terminal 2 explains. “Butbeing a key player at Heathrow is areal feather in Swissport Internation-al’s cap!”
our product. But our partners – ourcustomers and our employees – haveto understand that the amalgamationof Aer Lingus Ground Handling andSwissport UK was the biggest singleevent ever to happen at Heathrow.”It
FA C T S A N D F I G U R E S F O R S W I S S P O R T U K
Personnel 900Flight movements handled per year 50 000Tonnes handled per year 150 000Annual operating revenue GBP 30 million
R A M P S E R V I C E S
“Always on the move”
“Swissport has 450 people work-ing in its ramp services unit,with atleast 150 on duty at any time,handling a wide range of aircraftand customers. The Heathrowramp organisation has to be asquick and responsive as possible.We often don’t know what standan aircraft is going to be assignedto until just before it lands. Oncewe do, things have to happen fast:unloading the passengers’ bag-gage, then unloading the cargo,the mail and the courier bags. Oneof the biggest problems atHeathrow is the huge numberof vehicles all over the apron area,and the lack of space around theaircraft for all the various equip-ment. Our personnel numberswere frozen before and after themerger; but we’re now activelyrecruiting again, and we’re readyand willing to offer any ramp services our customers may want –pushback, trucking, whatever!”
Stan Adamson, Ramp Manager
Liberalisation broughtthe breakthroughIt was after the airport was fully lib-eralised in 1999, in accordance withEU directives, that the ground han-dling business at Heathrow experi-enced its own ‘big bang’, as the num-ber of ground handlers active at theairport mushroomed to eleven. That,of course, makes for a fiercely com-petitive market. “That’s why,” NoelEarley explains, “we need to empha-sise our global outreach to our cus-tomers. We need to show them thatwe can offer the same high-qualityservices in London, Frankfurt,Zurich, Nairobi, South Africa, SouthAmerica, the Philippines, the USAand elsewhere. We also need to con-vince them of the commercial bene-fits of concluding global agreementswith Swissport. I’m thinking here ofthe Swissport Umbrella IncentiveProgramme in particular.” What’smore, as Earley points out, the amal-gamation of the two companies hasalso permitted a valuable knowledgetransfer between motivated passen-ger service agents and well-trainedramp staff. “This knowledge transfermakes us a very attractive partner forpresent and future customers.”
Adding valueon the groundEveryone we spoke to at SwissportUK stressed how much importanceeach of their airline customers attach-es to having the right ground servicesproduct. Differentiation and addedvalue are what customers are lookingfor today, Swissport’s managersagree. And that, they are also unani-mous, has to happen on the ground.Efficient and friendly check-in, pleas-ant and welcoming lounges,punctual-ity every step of the way, quick bag-gage delivery on arrival – these arethe kind of things the airlines want tosee. “We can imagine adding to ourservices, too,” says Noel Earley. “Butpassenger and ramp handling are ourcore competences right now, and it’shere that we want to excel. We aim toclearly define the services we aim toprovide, by concluding Service LevelAgreements with our customers,quantifying the standards we want toachieve, and making sure that wemeet them.” Extending the compa-ny’s ISO 9002 certification is a furtherSwissport goal. Terminal 2 PassengerServices has already achieved it; andthe Passenger Services units at Termi-nals 1 and 3 are well on the way. ISO9002 should also be extended to thecompany’s Ramp Services activitiesover the next eighteen months. NoelEarley is the first to admit that themerger process is not yet complete.“We’re still building and improving
William Donegan, Ramp Agent: “The change was quite a surprise, of course. But threemonths on, my main feeling is‚ ‘So far, so good’! We hope we’ll be able to benefit fromSwissport’s extensive expertise in our day-to-day operations; and we hope to contributeour Aer Lingus experience, too.”
Joanne Breare, Facilities and Services Officer at Swissport UK’s head office, sees abright future. “It’s a real challenge to work for a large corporation that’s active all overthe world. I’m very optimistic!”
shows every sign of being a furthersuccess story in the airport’s eventfuldevelopment, too.
Christian P. SomogyiPhotos: August Kehl
Noel Earley, Commercial Manager for Sales and Marketing: “The merger has given usboth a broader range of products and more market presence, and has provided us witha far more persuasive package to offer potential customer airlines.”
S W I S S P O R T W O R L D W I D E
CEO David Jackson talked to Swiss-reporter about the goals he aimsto achieve with the new mergedcompany.
Swissreporter: Mr. Jackson, how wasthe transition from Aer LingusGround Handling to Swissport foryou,and how do you feel about it two-and-a-half months down the road?
David Jackson: Christmas, with itsheavy traffic flow, was a very hectictime to make a new beginning! Now,almost three months on, we are moreproactive in our product delivery;and
SWISSPORT UK LTD. ■ David Jackson, Chief Executive Officer
“Look at howSwissport does it!”
we’re getting some very encouragingfeedback from our customers, too.
Aer Lingus Ground Handling wasHeathrow’s leading ground handler.So why did the company want to shedthis activity?
Focusing on core competences is atrend we’re seeing all over the world.It’s closely connected with increasingglobalisation, of course. And globali-
sation has extended to ground han-dling, too. If you want to be a success-ful ground handler, it’s no longerenough to be a key player at just onelocation – even if that location isHeathrow.
How would you characterise theHeathrow ground handling market?What makes it so special?
Well, ground handling at Heathrow isnow fully liberalised. It has to be, tocomply with EU regulations. So wenow have eleven ground handlers cul-tivating a limited market that is fur-ther complicated by the manyalliances its airline customers areinvolved in. That all makes for atremendous amount of competition.But if you offer the kind of qualitythat is the Swissport trade mark, youcan achieve a strong and positivepresence in the marketplace, meeting
the ever challenging and changingexpectations of the airline community.
How did Aer Lingus Ground Han-dling’s personnel feel about changingcompanies?
There was initially a degree of reluc-tance, then concern. Many of the
people were Aer Lingus folk throughand through. But there has been agradual realisation that they are nowpart of a globally-active ground han-dling group. There were teethingproblems; this was to be expected.However, there is now a greater feel-ing of teamwork, with its positiveeffect on product delivery. There arealso more positive indications ofcoorporate identification. I’m think-ing here of our new uniforms, ourequipment and other visual signs –our people are increasingly comingto see and feel that their job, theircareer and their future lies with Swiss-port.
Swissport UK Ltd. aims to becomethe “benchmark ground handler” atLondon Heathrow. What exactlydo you mean by this? And how muchof this revolves around ISO 9002?
What we mean is that we want air-lines to look to Swissport when theydecide what kind of ground handlingperformance they expect. We wantthem to go to their current groundhandler and say, ‘Look at how Swiss-port does it’. That’s what I mean by abenchmark: the best practice in aleading ground handling companysetting the service standards for thisindustry as a whole.”
David Jackson, thank you for talkingto us!
The management team (from left to right): David Jackson, CEO; Jim Castle, Employee Services Manager; Jon Neal, Passenger Manager; Carl Grey, Manager Qualiflyer Group;John Mead, Personnel Services Manager; Julian Selwyn, Finance Manager; Stan Adamson, Ramp Manager and Noel Earley, Commercial Manager for Sales and Marketing.
David Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Swissport UK: “Swissport is a very good fitwith Aer Lingus Ground Handling, in terms of its quality philosophy and its strongcustomer focus.”
“Globalisation has extended toground handling, too.”
4 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000
S W I S S P O R T W O R L D W I D E
CUSTOMER VOICES ■ We asked customer airlines at Heathrow how they had experienced the
switch from Aer Lingus to Swissport for their ground handling needs.
“We’re all back on track!”Here are the views and impres-sions of SA Alliance Air, MalaysiaAirlines, Air India, Japan Airlinesand (of course) Aer Lingus, who isnot only Swissport UK’s biggestHeathrow customer, but was theclient most affected, too.
“It was all handledvery well.”“We only really felt the switch fromAer Lingus Ground Handling toSwissport as an organisationalchange: most of the people we actu-ally work with have stayed the same.And the service we receive has beenkept at the same high level, too.That’sunderstandable, of course: any opera-tor will be constantly striving to maketheir service quality even better thanbefore.A ground handler has to meetall the very different and individualservice expectations of all the cus-tomers they serve.Ours are very high:
customer service is one of thestrengths of SA Alliance Air. And Ithink Swissport does a good job ofhelping us in all our endeavours onour customers’ behalf.”
“Back to normal.”“London is an important station forAir India. Swissport looks after ourramp handling at Heathrow. All theother services – passenger care, oper-ations, engineering and so on – weperform ourselves. The transitionfrom Aer Lingus to Swissport had itseffect on us, too, of course. But theservice has picked up again and isback to normal now. I think the keycriterion for assessing any groundhandler’s performance is the servicethey provide for their customers’ cus-tomers. That means getting the bagsto the passenger as quickly as possibleonce the flight has landed, and han-dling that baggage with a maximumof care.The quality and the costs haveto be right, too. For us, of course, thefact that Swissport can offer its ser-vices all over the world has tremen-dous appeal.We’ve already entrusted
our ground handling to Swissport atother locations, too.”
“Not impressed at all.”“Personally, I’d have liked to havemore extensive information fromSwissport before,during and after themerger. As for the way the changewas handled and communicated, I
was not impressed at all. What weneed is an extensive ramp servicesproduct – a comprehensive packagethat includes pushback, towing, spe-
cial needs and the rest,all provided bythe same organisation. Swissportneeds to offer the same kind of thingthat other providers can offer us hereat Heathrow. On a general note, I’dsay that Swissport’s passenger ser-vices are very good, but we still get afew hiccups on the ramp side ofthings. I know their management isdoing a lot to improve the situationhere, though; and I look forward towhen these services will be at moresatisfactory levels.”
“We’re very positive!”“We’d been with Aer Lingus GroundHandling since 1971 or 1972,and we’dreally enjoyed working with them.The main issue in the changeover forus was that we should be able to main-tain our high standards. So we werevery concerned that this transitionperiod should be handled as smooth-
ly as possible. We were relieved tofind that our partners in the neworganisation were people we hadknown for a long time. I’m sure the
The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000 – Swissreporter 5
switch would have been a lot harder ifwe’d had to contend with a lot ofstrange new faces.And we did have afew hiccups during the transition, ofcourse. But Swissport’s managementis very good at responding to any cri-sis that might arise. On a scale of oneto ten, I would give the presentground handling organisation a seven.What we’re after is a nine!”
“It was a big stepfor us!”“I experienced the changeover inground handling from Aer Lingus toSwissport from an Aer Lingus per-spective.There are now 53 Aer Linguspeople at Heathrow station, runningthe ticket office and the engineeringfor our 22 daily flights. I have to admitthat the merger was almost inevitable.The aviation industry has been goingthrough some massive changes and,as with many of its activities, the
future of ground handling undoubt-edly lies in specialist companies withoperations all over the world,” saysMichael Hannick, Aer Lingus’ Gen-eral Manager and Head of Oper-ations. And how does he rate ‘his’ground handler three months afterthe merger? “There was a phase thatwas difficult for all of us. But I under-stand that Swissport is positivelyworking towards improving theground handling product to whereAer Lingus had it. We’re all back ontrack. Among our former staff, too –the ones who transferred to SwissportUK – I get the feeling that people aregradually getting over the cultureshock and are coming to embrace thechange. A lot of them have started tolook forward now, and can see newand broader career prospects withinthe Swissport organisation.”All in all,Michael Hannick is happy with hisground handler and the service it pro-vides. “My wish would be that, whenthey’re working for us, the people atSwissport are in partnership with usand should continue to think and actas Aer Lingus employees!”
Bill Kent, Station Manager, SA AllianceAir
Krishen K. Shangloo, Addl. GeneralManager, Ground Services Department,Air India
Kevin Jones, Station Manager, MalaysiaAirlines
Peter Peddell, Assistant Station Manager,Japan Airlines
Michael Hannick, General Manager,Head of Operations, Aer Lingus
I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y
Swissport will be introducing itsnew ADAPT planning tool thisApril – the most advanced plan-ning system currently availablein the ground handling world.
ANYONE WATCHINGthe activity at Zurich Airportfrom the spectators’ galleryatop Terminal B will have apretty good idea of how Swiss-port handles its flights.As theaircraft draws up to its termi-nal pier stand, it’s an impres-sive sight as the airbridge isextended and the highload-ers, baggage belts and dollytrains swarm around.
Precision planningNeedless to say, it takes vastoperating expertise to manage all
these processes, and to prepare forthem as effectively as possible. It alsotakes a team of totally reliable staffwho are absolute professionals in theirspecialist field and who can performtheir work promptly and swiftly at anytime. And – perhaps most of all – ittakes the kind of technical worktoolsthat can make all the difference. It’sthe computer and radio systems avail-able today that permit Swissport’slarger operations to plan and managetheir resources as precisely as they do.Swissport uses three different “sup-port systems” for its activities aroundthe world. The systems comprise vari-ous modules, depending on the size ofthe operation. But all of them basical-ly offer the two key assets of a long-term planning perspective and thepossibility of optimising deploymentsin the shorter term. ADAPT – whichstands for Advanced Disposition AndPlanning Tool – is the most importantsystem in Swissport’s resource man-agement armoury. ADAPT is an ITsolution that provides a central data-base for all resources and an applica-tion platform for the various planningand optimisation operations. ADAPTruns on a state-of-the-art Unix hard-ware platform; and the database alsoincorporates the latest technology anddata management philosophies.
Advanced displays andintuitive navigationThe ADAPT planning process beginswith the timetables of the various
ADAPT ■ Personal planning tools
Keys to rostering success
customer airlines. These areused by the system to draw up acomposite overview of all a certainday’s flights. Since the system alsostores full details of the servicesrequired by each airline customer, thecomputer can then calculate exactlywhat resources will be needed whenand in what quantities. This suppliesSwissport with the desired number ofpersonnel, vehicles, equipment itemsand fixed installations such as gates.Meanwhile, a separate part of the sys-tem can be used to devise and publishduty rosters for the employees con-cerned. To do this, the system access-es the personnel data which arestored in Swissport’s human resour-ces system. The system automaticallyproduces a provisional duty roster,which can then be refined by the com-pany’s own roster planners and
adapted to take account of individualemployee requests. (Swissport strivesto meet as many of these requests aspossible, feeling that this is the bestway to have and retain motivatedstaff.) With all this careful prepara-tion, Swissport and its personnel havea precise plan of who will be doingwhat and when, long before the air-craft has landed, ensuring for bothSwissport and its customer that theground handling is performed assmoothly and efficiently as possible,and that standards are constantlymaintained at their usual high levels.ADAPT can also be used to manageand monitor day-to-day ground han-dling operations as they are per-formed. The system will flag any dis-
SWISSPORT’S DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS
ABB Airport Technologies/Information Technology (AAIT)Planning, constructing, operating and financing airport projects are thecore business activities of AAIT, a new subsidiary within the globally-activeABB group. The company’s IT unit has already devised and distributed anairport information system that is deployed all over the world.Swissport hasdeveloped its ADAPT system together with Siemens and AAIT in a jointproject which has been under way since 1998.
AtraxisAtraxis is the SAirGroup’s IT subsidiary and a sister company of Swissportin the group’s SAirServices division. Atraxis has long focused its IT de-velopment and operations on the needs of the airline, airport and transpor-tation sectors. Swissport has now entrusted most of its IT operations andneeds to its sister company. It’s a move that makes sense for everyone con-cerned:Atraxis is probably the best company in the world at appreciating aglobal ground handler’s IT needs.
SiemensSiemens, a further global supplier of airport IT solutions, has been in chargeof the integration and overall management of the ADAPT project. Swiss-port collaborates with Siemens in other key areas, too – such as the new bag-gage sorting facility at Zurich Airport, where Siemens has programmed theentire systems management and controls.
crepancy between actual needs andavailable resources, and will even
automatically suggest a solution tothe problem.Yet despite the high
degree of automation, everydeployment is also effectedunder the watchful eye oftrained specialist operationsmanagers who will intervenewherever an individual non-system-based decision willenhance a particular activity.By adopting this multi-stepapproach with its combina-tion of automation andhuman touch, Swissport canoffer its customers a trulyoptimised ground handlingproduct. It can also offerfixed or variable service lev-
els, to provide the customerwith the level of service to meet
their particular budget andneeds. Needless to say, ADAPT
can record the services provided, too.This in turn permits invoicing to beextensively automated, which is itselfa guarantee of prompt and accurateaccounting. All in all, ADAPT is farand away the most sophisticated ofSwissport’s resource managementsystems, and is an invaluable work-tool wherever the company needs todeploy large numbers of its person-nel.
Starling:PC-based applicationspossible, tooIn addition to ADAPT, Swissportuses two PC-based applications forits staff rostering activities. Starling,which has been developed by Atraxis,Swissport’s sister company withinthe SAirGroup, is an advancedworktool that uses Java technology.Being internet-based, Starling is par-ticularly useful at smaller stationsthat do not have their own serversystems, enabling them to draw uptheir rosters and monitor employeeworking hours with a minimum ofcostly hardware investment. All inall, Starling offers excellent value formoney. The third system used bySwissport for its staff rostering activ-ities is WorkBuilder, a took devel-oped in the USA that is especiallyhelpful in the long-term planningfield.These three systems – ADAPT,Starling and WorkBuilder – provideSwissport with a wide range ofinvaluable IT tools with which thecompany should continue to makeoptimum use of its precious humanand other resources, for the benefitof its customer airlines and their pas-sengers.
Urs von Euw
C O N TA C T
Urs von EuwSwissport International Ltd.CH-8058 Zurich AirportPhone +41 1 812 43 94Fax + 41 1 811 10 02E-mail: [email protected]
6 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000
The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000 – Swissreporter 7
VA L U E - A D D I N G S E R V I C E S
Swissport has launched a newmarketing programme at all itsstations around the world to dem-onstrate the wide range of addi-tional benefits that collaborationwith a global ground handler canprovide.
A S PA R T O F the new market-ing drive, all Swissport’s current andpotential customer airlines were senta handy information brochure at the
beginning of February outlining thevarious activities planned for the“Plus10” programme. Recipients willnow receive a postcard each monthdrawing attention to a different activ-ity from the range. The first focus –“GroundSpeed” – is already underway. Punctual arrivals and departuresare vital in the airline business; and“GroundSpeed”is Swissport Interna-tional’s endeavour to not only keepturnaround times to the minima it haspromised, but to actually regain losttime for the airline while the aircraftis on the ground. In this part of the“Plus10” programme, all these detailswill be recorded in a report, to showcustomer airlines how much time(and thus money) Swissport can savethem through its ground handlingactivities.
Umbrella Incentive Planoffers new possibilitiesThe focus in April will be on the“BonusPlan” project. This relates toan Umbrella Incentive Plan underwhich Swissport will invite its airlinecustomers to extend their Swissporthandling to other stations where theyare currently looked after by anotherground handler. For May the focuswill shift to the “CustomerForum”, aplatform for Swissport’s various sta-tions and their customer carriers to
exchange information, questions,problems and more. These customerforums will be arranged at least twicea year by the local Swissport organi-sation. As a global ground handlingcompany, Swissport has set itself thedeclared goal of offering the samehigh quality throughout its stationnetwork. It aims to meet and maintainthese quality standards by introduc-ing total quality management all overthe world and by analysing all itsprocesses to ensure their compliancewith ISO 9002 norms. In doing so, itwill provide its customers with clearproof that it meets all the quality cri-teria to which it has subscribed.Adherence will be further monitoredby Swissport’s own quality controllersand a number of specialists fromindependent companies, who willconduct regular audits of the servicesand practices concerned. Swissport iswell aware of the responsibility it hastowards its airline customers. Afterall, the first impression a passengerreceives tends to carry a huge amount
of weight. So the “GoodWill” compo-nent of the “Plus10”programme com-mits Swissport employees to respectall its customers’ (and their cus-tomers’) specific cultural and individ-ual needs, by being as polite andaccommodating as possible in all theircustomer dealings.
A new flying corpsto assist customerairlines’ passengersAs more and more people come toembrace flying as part of their trav-elling lives, check-in operations arecoming under increasing pressure,especially during holiday periods.The “Plus10” programme’s “PaxAs-sist” component, which will be thefocus for August, will see experi-enced and specially-trained staffdeployed to assist passengers in thecheck-in area – answering questionsand helping in various other ways tomake their check-in as smooth andswift as possible. With their experi-ence and expertise, the “PaxAssist”
“PLUS10” ■ A marketing drive with a difference
Ten trumpsin a singlehand!
staff will make an active contributionto optimising check-in operations atthese crucial peak times. Swissportwill also be introducing an “Info-Line”, providing a new phone num-ber for local passengers travelling onits customer airlines to ask any ques-tions they may have in advance oftheir flight.The quality of the servicesprovided by any ground handler isdirectly related to the satisfaction ofits airline and passenger customers.The “Plus10” programme’s “Qual-Report” component will provide amonthly summary of the servicesSwissport has provided, giving detailsof key indicators such as stationdelays, baggage delivery times, gateoccupancy times and similar. “Qual-Report” should prove a valuableassessment for Swissport’s customerairlines, and should also help ensurethat any improvements required arerapidly introduced.
The future is here! And that’s not all: from Novemberonwards, Swissport customer air-lines’ passengers will also be able tocheck up on the location (or the cur-rent search status) of any bags thathave been mislaid or misrouted via ahandy internet connection. By enter-ing a personal baggage code, the pas-senger will be able to access thisinformation from anywhere in theworld. And last but not least, Swiss-port won’t be neglecting the check-infront, either. The “Check@In” com-ponent of the “Plus10” programmeis Swissport’s drive to develop anew generation of user-friendly andstate-of-the-art self-check-in ma-chines.
Marco Boetschi
L I K E T O K N O W M O R E ?
If you would like further informa-tion on Swissport’s “Plus10” pro-gramme, visit the www.swiss-port.com website or mail any spe-cific questions you may have [email protected], quality and a wide range of services are the key assets of any ground
handling organisation.
C O N TA C T
Marco BoetschiSwissport International Ltd.CH-8058 Zurich AirportPhone +41 1 812 93 00Fax + 41 1 811 10 01E-mail: [email protected]
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Peoria
Tulsa NashvilleGreenville
St. Louis
GrandRapids
TampaHouston
AustinBirmingham
San Antonio
Fort MyersBrownsvilleLaredo
El PasoDallas
Jackson
Oklahoma City
Phoenix
Las Vegas
San DiegoLos Angeles
Fortaleza
Newburgh
Brasilia
Natal
MexicoCancun
8 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000
N E T W O R K
Some of the more than 300 customers served by Swissport International around the world
China AirlinesCie Corse MéditerrannéeCroatia AirlinesCrossairCyprus AirwaysCzech AirlinesDelta Air LinesEgyptairEl AlEmery WorldwideEmiratesEurowingsFinnairGulf AirIberiaIcelandairJapan AirlinesJATKLMKorean AirKuwait AirwaysLauda AirLOTLTULufthansaLuxairMaersk AirMalaysia Airlines
MalevMeridianaMexicana AirlinesMiddle East AirlinesOlympic AirwaysPakistan InternationalQuantasRegional AirlinesRoyal Air MarocRoyal JordanianSabenaSASSaudi Arabian AirlinesSingapore AirlinesSobelairSouth African AirwaysSwissairTaca International AirlinesTAP Air PortugalTatra AirThai AirwaysTower AirTransbrasilTunis AirTurkish AirlinesTyrolean AirwaysVASP
Nairobi
Manila
Cebu
Davao
Laoag
Khabarovsk
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Durban
Tel Aviv
LondonAmsterdam
Hamburg
BerlinDüsseldorf
MontpellierToulouse
Marseille Nice
FrankfurtStuttgart
MunichZurich
BaselLyon Geneva
Cagliari
Trabzon
Adana
Ankara
CorluIstanbul
Izmir
BodrumDalaman
Antalya
LeipzigBremen
Hanover
Madrid
MalagaPalma de Mallorca
Barcelona
Athens
Cologne
Cairo
The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000 – Swissreporter 9
N E T W O R K
K E Y F I G U R E S 1 9 9 9 / 2 0 0 0
Number of stations over 110Number of customers over 300Number of employees 15 000Revenue (USD) per year 625 000 000Passengers handled per year 53 000 000Aircraft handled per year 958 000
As Managing Director of BAA Heath-row Airport Limited, Roger Catois in overall charge of the world’sbusiest international airport. Swiss-reporter editor Christian P. Somogyitalked to him in London aboutpresent challenges, future plansand other aspects of this complexairport’s operation.
Swissreporter: Mr. Cato, could yougive us a general impression of Heath-row Airport right now? As ManagingDirector, what would you say are itsbiggest strengths?
Roger Cato: London Heathrow isserved by all the world’s major air-lines – 92 at the last count.That’s a siz-able increase on the early 1990s.
Have you been able to improve theinfrastructure and the terminal facil-ities to meet the needs of these highertraffic volumes?
Yes, we’re making tangible improve-ments to all the terminal buildings allthe time! And we’ve substantially
improved our workflows for handlingbaggage and enhanced access to andfrom the terminals. We’ve also beentied into the national rail system fornearly two years now: the HeathrowExpress, which links the airport withCentral London, is a very convenientconnection for the 4.5 million peoplewho use it every year, and has takenabout 3000 cars a day off the roads.We’ve made a good deal of progresson the noise and environmentalfronts, too – which has greatlyenhanced the quality of the lives ofthousands of local residents, especial-ly to the west of the airport.
10 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000
A I R P O R T W O R L D
Once we’ve got our planned Terminal5 up and running, we’ll be able tohandle between 80 and 85 millionpassengers a year. The average num-ber of passengers per flight iscurrently about 136. There’s clearlyroom for development there. Butwhat will be just as important willbe making the most of the runwayswe have in terms of movements perhour.
BAA Heathrow has ruled out build-ing a third major runway. Doesthat put a cap on your maximumcapacity?
When we came to plan the proposedTerminal 5, we imposed certain limitsvoluntarily on ourselves. Those para-meters included: no third runway, noincrease in night movements, andkeeping noise emissions at their 1994levels. We would love to make ouroperations silent and invisible, but wecan’t.What we can do, though, is pur-sue a policy that’s as responsible aspossible towards the environmentand society as a whole.
And what about the weaknesses?
Well, one major drawback has to bethe limited space available here.We’re currently handling close to 65million passengers on less than 3000acres of land. Dallas International, bycomparison, has about 19 000 acresfor its 80 million passengers. That’squite a difference!
The growth of the airline industry issure to continue: more flights, morepassengers and bigger aircraft arewhat the airlines seem to want. CanHeathrow cope with this?
INTERVIEW ■ With Roger Cato, Managing Director of BAA Heathrow Airport Limited
“We are well aware of ourresponsibility!”
H E AT H R O W FA C T S A N D F I G U R E S
■ A total of 61 million passengers used Heathrow Airport in 1999. Servedby over 90 airlines operating to more than 200 destinations, Heathrowis by far the busiest international airport in the world.
■ Heathrow Airport provides jobs with a total payroll of some GBP 3 bil-lion. It creates over 200 000 jobs throughout the country: 82 000 of themin the immediate vicinity, 57 000 of them on the airport site.
■ Heathrow offers more flights to international destinations than anyother airport in the world. The airport has 36 daily departures to Parisalone and 22 daily connections to New York. It also handles over 75 mil-lion pieces of baggage a year.
The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000 – Swissreporter 11
A I R P O R T W O R L D
Aren’t these self-imposed restrictions– no third runway, no additionalnight flights and so on – mainly ameans of getting public opinion andthe government authorities to sup-port your expansion plans?
No. We’ve been striving to pursue aresponsible policy towards the envi-ronment for some years now.We wantto do everything we can to reduce theimpact of the airport on its immediateneighbours in terms of noise levels,pollutant emissions and so on. Thathas nothing to do with getting publicopinion on our side.We want to do sobecause, as an airport, you have toadopt an eco-minded approach ifyou’re so extensively surrounded byresidential communities.
But won’t you miss the third runwayone day, if you want to keep up withyour competitors?
We are well aware of what Paris,Frankfurt and Amsterdam are doing.We can see how much spare land theyhave at their disposal, and how quick-ly they have their requests for furtherdevelopment approved. We need tooffset the advantages they have here,by increasingly seeing and treatingthe airports for London and theSouth East – Heathrow, Gatwick andStansted – as a single airport system.
But changing planes from Heath-row to Gatwick is hardly the sameas transferring within the same air-
port.
Agreed. In fact, the number of con-nections involving a transfer betweenHeathrow and Gatwick is very smallcompared to the number of transferconnections we have within Heathrow.But in the longer term, we hope thatfaster train connections could makethese inter-airport transfers more of anoption.In concrete terms,I’m thinkingof an extension of the HeathrowExpress from Terminal 1 to the futureTerminal 5 and then on to Gatwick.Incidentally,Terminal 5 will be the firstairport terminal in the UK to be totallygeared to public transport. It will offera genuine public transport inter-change, with bus, London Under-ground, Heathrow Express and latereven inter-city rail connections to thesouth and north of the country.
Heathrow Express also offers thepossibility of checking in at Lon-don’s Paddington Station. Do youhave plans for further out-of-termi-nal check-in points?
We’re considering installing a num-ber of kerbside check-in facilities for
Terminals 1, 3 and 4. There are otherideas in the pipeline, too. But none ofthese is as far down the developmentpath as the Paddington check-in facility.
The hub-and-spoke system that air-lines today tend to prefer calls for theshortest possible connecting times forpassengers and their bags.What’s thesituation like here?
Our shortest transfer times – about45 minutes – are in Terminal 1. But alot of our transfers are from domesticor European feeder flights onto long-haul departures, and that usuallyentails a change of terminal. It was toimprove these connections that weopened our centralised Flight Con-nection Centre about five years ago.We’ve also invested over GBP 60 mil-lion in an underground baggage sys-tem that can transport bags betweenTerminal 1 and Terminal 4. Theseinvestments have dramatically re-duced inter-terminal transfer times.
Nevertheless, Heathrow can hardlybe described as an easy airport tochange flights at. Long walks, queues
at the Flight Connection Centre andbuses to other terminals are all partof the picture. How would you de-scribe the present situation? And doyou see any possibilities for im-provement?
We have invested almost a millionpounds a day in improving Heathrowover the last four years. At themoment, we are working very closelywith the various airline alliances tosee if there are any opportunities forswitching flights from one terminal toanother, to reduce the distances thatconnecting passengers have to traveland the time this takes.
Immigration – Passport Control – isanother problem here at Heathrow.What’s the point of getting from Zur-ich to London in just 75 minutes ifyou then have to wait three quarters
of an hour to get through Passports?Does BAA have any influence overthis?
We have a very good working rela-tionship with the immigration author-ities. One of the more significantimprovements – getting rid of pass-port checks for departing passengers– was the result of our lobbying. Thishas freed up more immigration offi-cers to be deployed at ImmigrationControl. In addition to Service LevelAgreements, we have regular meet-ings with Customs to discuss how theauthorities could further improvetheir side of the process.
The development of Terminal 5should be approved by the end of2002. When is this fifth terminallikely to open, and what benefits doyou expect it to bring?
Terminal 5 could be completed by theend of 2007. It will give us a lot morespace, the aircraft stands we urgentlyneed, and the chance to reassign air-lines among the various terminals.
What possibilities do you see of offer-ing preferential treatment to Firstand Business Class passengers – notjust with lounges and priority bag-gage delivery, but throughout theirjourney through the airport?
We’ve now established a “fast track”for Business and First Class cus-tomers at three of our terminals.Andwe’re looking into other possibilitiesof getting Business and First Classpassengers through the whole systemfaster, while keeping the overall sys-tem as efficient as possible for every-one concerned.
What’s your own personal view of de-velopments such as e-travel, self-check-in, and identification by smartcard or cellular phone?
We’re following all these develop-ments very closely indeed.
How important do you feel groundhandling companies are in these areas?
The role of the ground handlers is avital one, and it’s very important thatBAA works together with them asclosely as possible. That role and thatcollaboration are just as essential interms of these forward-looking tech-nologies, in making optimum use ofthe available ramp facilities and inhelping us achieve our environmentalcare objectives.
The Heathrow ground handling mar-ket is now open to any operator.What was the thinking behind thistotal market liberalisation?
I N V E S T M E N T
An average of GBP 1 million hasbeen invested in Heathrow Air-port every day over the last fewyears. Of this, over GBP 500 mil-lion has been spent on public trans-port links such as the GBP 450 mil-lion Heathrow Express rail serviceto and from Central London.
F U N FA C T S
■ Whisky is by far the most popular drink at Heathrow: on average, abottle is bought every seven seconds!
■ An average of 20 mobile phones are lost at Heathrow every day.
“We need to see and treat the airportsfor London and the South East –
Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted – as asingle airport system.”
“Noise abatementand environmental
protection willcontinue to occupy
a great deal ofour time andattention.”
We had actually agreed with the air-lines using Heathrow that, primarilyfor security and space reasons, thenumber of ground handlers at the air-port should be reduced from eight tosix. But then the European Commis-sion decided that all Europe’s air-ports should basically be open to anyground services provider. As a resultof this policy, we now have elevenground handlers at Heathrow. As faras we’re concerned, it will take a lotmore collaboration among all thepartners if we’re to achieve our origi-nal objectives of reducing bottlenecksand the numbers of ramp and apronvehicles.
How do you see the future of theground handling market here at Heathrow?
The airlines involved in the majoralliances are sure to work closertogether for their ground handlingneeds. So in the longer term I thinkwe’re going to see a reduction, ratherthan an increase, in the number ofground handling companies.
In this kind of market environment,who should basic infrastructure likethe baggage sorting facility belongto?
We believe that it should still be theairport – us, in other words – thatowns and operates this equipment.
Cato the Elder, a senator in AncientRome, used to end every speech withthe words “Carthage must be de-stroyed”, regardless of what the restof the speech was about. Do you haveyour own mantra that you repeatto your team and your partners, tohelp move everybody closer to yourgoals?
I have three, actually! First, I tell myteam every year: “We were good lastyear, but we’ve got to be even betterthis year.” Second, I’m a passionatecampaigner for clean and tidy termi-nals. And third, I always repeat mydemand that nobody should everdeliberately break our safety andsecurity rules. So my own Cato-esquemessage would be “One:keep it good;two: keep it tidy; three: keep it safeand secure”.
Mr. Cato, thank you very much foryour time!
Interview and photo:Christian P. Somogyi
12 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000
S A D FS W I S S P O R T
■ IATA Ground Handling 2000
Ground Handling Councilholds its annual get-to-gether in Dubai“Ground Handling 2000”, an eventthat will combine the 13th AnnualMeeting of the IATA Ground Han-dling Council with an extensiveground handling exhibition, will beheld at the JW Marriott Hotel inDubai (UAE) from May 7 to 10. Theannual event offers an excellentopportunity to renew old acquain-tances and make new ones, with hun-dreds of key ground handlers andtheir customers all under one roof.The IATA Ground Handling Councilor IGHC is the most important forumof the year for international groundhandling companies and their execu-tives. The Council currently has amembership of over 400 organisa-tions offering ground handling ser-vices. The 2000 event, which is tobe held in Dubai, will again bringtogether IATA and non-IATA air-lines, independent ground handlingcompanies, airport authorities, mem-bers of the IATA Partnership Pro-gramme and other parties interestedin ground handling operations. Themeeting will focus on a wide range oftopical items in the ground servicessector, from the correct application ofand latest developments in the IATAStandard Ground Handling Agree-
ment (SGHA) to a general overviewof hot current issues such as airlineand airport security, the impact ofderegulation on ground handling,developments in the automationfield, cost controls and airside safetyconcerns.Visitors to Dubai can expectto meet over 500 fellow attendeesfrom the top ranks of all sectors of theairline industry, ground handling spe-cialists and airport executives from all
over the airline world. And it’s thisthat makes the IGHC such an excel-lent place for meeting customers,trading ideas and making new busi-ness contacts. Because in addition toits sessions, its bilateral meetings andits extensive parallel exhibition,Ground Handling 2000 gathers a hostof airlines, airports and ground han-dlers under the same roof.
Stephan Beerli
■ SogaerDyn Sardinia
Swissport present inSardinia, tooSwissport has a new partner companyin Sardinia: Cagliari-based Sogaer-Dyn. The company offers full groundhandling services at the city’s Elmasinternational airport. Cagliari is apopular gateway for southern Sar-dinia, where numerous holidayresorts are located. With the reliableservices SogaerDyn provides, Cagli-ari has the potential to become a pop-ular way of entering Italy – especiallyin 2000, which will see increased con-gestion at the major gateways owingto the millennium celebrations.
Othmar Widmer
■ Swissport Deutschland
Berlin Tempelhofbecomes Swissport’s firstGerman operationSwissport started its first Germanoperations under its own name onFebruary 1. In an expansion of theBerlin (Tegel) activities of Aerogate,which is also a member of the Swiss-
port group,Swissport won the groundhandling business of Sabena for itsBerlin (Tempelhof) operations. Ourpicture shows a visibly-relievedClaudia Weidenbusch, Head of Mar-keting, and Joachim Sobottka, Oper-ations Manager at the end of a suc-cessful first day on which all fivedepartures were dispatched on time.Incidentally, aficionados of airportarchitecture will find Berlin Tempel-hof well worth a visit.
Hermann Delliehausen
■ Swissport Spain
Four licences grantedThe origins of “Swissport Spain” dateback to December 1998, when theSwissport International board gavethe green light to a proposal to createa “Sociedad anonima” fully owned bySwissport International Ltd. In Julyof last year, Swissport Handling S.A.,España submitted its requests forthird-party passenger handling licen-ces at Madrid,Barcelona,Malaga andPalma de Mallorca airports. In No-vember Swissport Handling receivedthe long-awaited written confirma-tion granting all four licences. Swiss-port envisages opening the new han-dling units at all four locations thisspring. In a first step, Swissport Han-dling will offer passenger check-in/boarding and a full weight & bal-ance service (both via the proven“Orca” departure control system),arrival and departure assistance, lost& found services, ramp handlingsupervision and station management& administration. For further infor-mation, please contact Daniel Gut at+34 91 305 5148 (phone) or [email protected] (e-mail).
Daniel Gut
■ ISO 9002
Swissport head officeearns its ISO badgeSwissport International’s head officegained ISO certification at the begin-ning of the year. Swissport strives toprovide superior ground handling interms of quality, reliability, customerfocus and value.Quality managementsystems (ISO 9002 or TQM) are inplace throughout the Swissport net-work, and the Swissport global quali-ty assurance programme ensuresimpeccable ground handling qualityat all its stations. Each station’s per-formance is constantly monitored andthe results are published in a month-ly report.The latest quality results canbe checked for any station at thewww.swissport.com website.
Josef Fritsche
News and views from all over
I G H C D E L E G AT E S : M E E T S W I S S P O R T I N D U B A I
Needless to say,Swissport International will be attending Ground Handling2000, too. In addition to sending a top management delegation, the companywill have its own exhibition stand,and will also be organising a special event.If you’d like to make an appointment with one of our Swissport delegatesin Dubai, contact Stephan Beerli on +41 1 812 4950 (phone), +41 1 811 1001(fax) or [email protected] (e-mail).
F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N
For further details of the GroundHandling 2000 event, contactIATA’s Mr. Jack Adelman, Assis-tant Director Airport Services,P.O. Box 416CH-1215 Geneva 15 AirportSwitzerlandPhone +41 22 799 2703Fax +41 22 799 2662TTY: GVABZXBE-mail: [email protected]
Claudia Weidenbusch and JoachimSobottka
■ Dutchport
Escape to Swiss mountainresortThe Dutchport management teamspent a weekend in sunny Davos in theSwiss Alps recently evaluating the firstfew months of operation at Schiphol
Airport, Amsterdam and discussingstrategy for the year ahead. The eventkicked off with a brief visit to Swissporthead office in Zurich.Then it was off tothe mountains and the group’s snow-decked chalet. The first session wasdevoted to a review of operations sofar, from the first preparations inDecember 1998 through to the first dayof business in May and the Qualiflyercutover on October 6, and up to thepresent-day set-up with 215 personnel.The discussions offered an excellentopportunity for Léon Jansen, the newmarketing & contracts manager, tofamiliarise himself with the companyand its short but dynamic history.Therewas time for rest and relaxation, too, ofcourse, including an afternoon on theJakobshorn, attending an ice hockeymatch and an original home-madeSwiss fondue.
Jürg Schumacher
■ Swissport International
Swissport now inMexico, Spain andGreeceSwissport International has under-pinned its position as the world’snumber-one ground handling com-pany by adding more airports to itsglobal network. From April 1, Swiss-port Mexico will provide groundhandling services at stations in Mex-ico City and Cancun. The same datewill also see the start of operationsby Swissport Spain at Barcelona,Madrid, Malaga and Palma airports,while Swissport Hellas will com-mence its Athens ground handlingoperations.
Stephan Beerli
Qantas Airways recently awardedDynAir’s Honolulu station its inau-gural Category 1 Award – QantasSupplier Assessment Airport ServicesPurchasing Supplier of 1999. Theaward recognises the significantachievements of the Honolulu sta-tion’s ramp handling for the carrierover the past two years. “Qantas hasset an aggressive challenge for its sup-pliers to meet, and DynAir Services –Honolulu, Ramp Handling has clear-
ly demonstrated that it is within itsscope to meet Qantas’ 1997 to 1999targets,” said Rick Campbell, DeputyGroup General Manager Purchasingfor the Australian-based carrier.DynAir Honolulu also received Qan-tas’ QSA Preferred Supplier – 1999awards for its aircraft cleaning, ramphandling and engineering handlingactivities.
Thomas Dyer
■ Fast track
Cordless check-in:the future has landed!Airline customers will soon be able tocheck in by mobile phone. All they’llneed to take advantage of this conve-nient facility is an internet-accessWAP mobile phone. The phonecheck-in option (which can also beused for onward and return flights) iscurrently limited to Zurich, and topassengers travelling only with carry-on bags. Check-in is confirmed on themobile’s display, which shows theflight number, exact departure time,and gate and seat number. Once thecustomer has checked in, they will beautomatically informed of anychanges to the flight via a messagethat appears on their mobile’s display.Swissair – in association with Swiss-port Zurich – is the first airline tooffer this new check-in option usingstate-of-the-art interactive communi-cations technology.The service,whichwill initially be offered to a selectedpilot group of customers, has beendeveloped by Swissair in close collab-
oration with IBM’s research laboratoryin Rüschlikon, near Zurich. Futuredevelopment plans envisage a raft ofsimilar services all based on interactivecommunications technology.
Simon Widmer
■ ISO 9002
Dutchport certificatedSwissport partner Dutchport hasearned its ISO 9002 certification onlynine months after it started opera-tions at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Air-port in May 1999. ISO preparationsbegan last July with a general inven-tory of business processes. Just sixmonths later, the certificate wasobtained. But Dutchport has nointention of resting on its laurels.Instead, the company is now strivingto further implement the various ISOprocedures within the company. ISOcertification is part of Swissport’s new“Plus10” project. Internal audits willnow be conducted several timesthroughout the year, and an annualaudit will also be performed by theGerman TÜV.
Jürg Schumacher
The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000 – Swissreporter 13
S W I S S P O R T
the world
Happy working days in Davos: (from left)Léon Jansen, Eveline Steenaart, MildredHumpeler, Leo Hauser, Mik Hartel, JürgSchumacher.
Punctuality is a prerequisite for any air-line’s success. Shortly before the end of1999, Swissair rewarded the five sta-tions out of its whole network whichproduced the best punctuality results.The survey, which was based on theSummer 1999 timetable period, pro-duced a “clean sweep” for European
stations:Krakow,Ljubljana,Genoa andthe two proud Swissport stations ofStuttgart and Geneva.Ray Lyons,Swiss-air’s Executive Vice President NetworkManagement, presented the winnerswith their trophies at an award cere-mony in Geneva.
Andrea Wehrli
■ DynAir
DynAir Honolulu gets Qantas awards
■ Swissair punctuality awards
Distinctions for five Swissport stations
Happy about high punctuality results: Ray Lyons, Swissair Executive Vice PresidentNetwork Management, Evi Galante, Genoa; Jean-Pierre Allemann; Ernest Hochuli,Geneva; Andrea Baroni; Dusan Lovrencec, Ljubljana; Rolf Aldinger, Stuttgart; RolandSchwendeler and Robert Augustyniak, Krakow (from left to right).
Once the customer has checked in, theirmobile will display full details of the flight,including any changes.
14 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000
S A D FC U S T O M E R V O I C E
I M P R E S S U M
Published by:Swissport International Ltd. –an SAirServices company
Contributors to this issue:Stephan BeerliMarco BoetschiHermann DelliehausenThomas DyerJosef FritscheDaniel GutJoseph In AlbonRené SayoJürg SchumacherChristian P. SomogyiUrs von EuwAndrea WehrliSimon Widmer
Translations:Paul DaySAirGroup Translations
Layout and art direction:Caroline Lipp, DAZ
Printing:DAZ, Druckerei Albisrieden AGZurich
Editorial and production office:CPS Communications, ZurichPhone: +41 1 260 65 22Fax: +41 1 260 65 24
Subscriptions:Free subscriptions are available formanagement personnel of airlinesand other selected companies.Please send your subscription regis-tration, together with your fulladdress, to the Swissreporter Infor-mation Desk.
Changes of address:Please send details of any change ofaddress (by returning your mailinglabel with the changes clearly indi-cated) and any other correspond-ence regarding subscriptions to theSwissreporter Information Desk,fax: +41 1 811 10 01.
TWA recorded a further landmarkin its long history on November 1when it named San Juan, PuertoRico its “focus city”, making thedestination its first non-US hub.The designation is not unearned:the carrier has increased its dailyflights to the city from three tofifteen! Swissreporter spoke toDaniel Gonzalez, TWA StationManager in San Juan.
D A N I E L G O N Z A L E Z is re-sponsible for ensuring that his air-line’s 15 daily flights are properly andsmoothly handled. And his mostimportant partner for doing so isSwissport Puerto Rico Inc., withwhom TWA has been working for thelast three years.TWA prefers to do itsown passenger handling; but all theother duties – ramp, cargo and mail –are assigned to the Swissport sub-sidiary. Not surprisingly, TWA’s five-fold increase in its daily services lastNovember was a major event forSwissport Puerto Rico, too. The han-dler added a further 106 personnel toits payroll for these operations alone,bringing total staff numbers to 400employees or 325 full-time positions.And it wasn’t just more people thathad to be acquired: Swissport alsoinvested over USD 1 million in theextra equipment it needed to performthe new duties.
Good experience “When we decided to turn San Juaninto one of our focus cities, we lookedat a number of options and offers forthe ground handling side of our oper-ations,” Daniel Gonzalez explains.“But we’d had good experience withSwissport, so we decided to stick withthem.” So what particular strengthsdoes Gonzalez appreciate in theSwissport service product? “They’reexceptionally reliable,” he replies and
goes on to describe a highly unusualassignment that is also part of theSwissport San Juan remit. San Juan isthe biggest cruise ship port in theworld: some 1.2 million passengersstarted or ended their cruise there lastyear.
From the cruise shipto the departure gateSwissport checks in passengers arriv-ing by sea and returning home by airright at the pier,and ensures that theirbaggage is transferred to their flight.So when they get to the airport, thetravellers can just make their way tothe departure gate. It’s not an easyjob, and it calls for a tremendousamount of care and control on theground handler’s part. Daniel Gon-zalez is proud of his station’s desig-nation as TWA’s first focus city. Thenew status should give San Juan fargreater prominence in the carrier’snetwork and plans, offering passen-gers (and cruise travellers in particu-lar) many more non-stop connec-tions to various US destinations.These include the only non-stop ser-vice between San Juan and LosAngeles, five daily flights to NewYork, two daily frequencies toBoston, and a daily service to FortLauderdale.The San Juan hub is alsohome to Trans World Connections orTWC, whose 19-seat Beechcraft fleetoffers convenient connections tovarious Caribbean destinations in-
TWA ■ Swissport Puerto Rico is TWA’s local ground handling partner
A powerful team
S W I S S P O R T P U E R T O R I C O : FA C T S A N D F I G U R E S
Passengers handled in 1999 613 000
Cargo handled in 1999 3 322 tonnes
Employees 409
Customers (in the airline, cargo, charteroperations, equipment rental, freightforwarding, office space rental and otherservice sectors) 122
cluding St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St.Croix and St. Kitts.
“Rome wasn’t builtin a day!”How happy is Daniel Gonzalez withhis company’s collaboration withSwissport since the expansion of itsoperations? “Rome wasn’t built in aday,” is his cryptic reply. “Swissporthad a very impressive on-time perfor-mance for our earlier operations,” herecalls.“Naturally, when you increaseyour services by 500 per cent, you’rebound to see a bit of a drop-off. Butwe can’t really blame our ground han-dler for that. What we’re doing at themoment is working together to getthat performance back where it usedto be. Developing San Juan is a majorproject – for us and for our groundhandler,” Gonzalez continues. “Onthe whole, I’d say we are very happywith the responsiveness and the relia-bility we get from Swissport PuertoRico. We find we encounter a lot ofopenness at every level; and we findthey have a genuine desire to meetour needs.And if we do have to com-plain, the problem is usually sortedout as swiftly and straightforwardly ascan be.” All in all, Daniel Gonzalezsees a bright and busy future for TWAand its new San Juan hub.And he seesSwissport Puerto Rico as a key part-ner in that future, too.
Christian P. Somogyi
The Swissport customer journal ■ April 2000 – Swissreporter 15
B E F O R E Y O U G O …
F R O M T H E T O P
Breaking throughIf you want to be the industry benchmark, you’ve got to provide “break-through” services and products. Swissport’s aim is to be the world numberone in service quality and customer dedication.At head office in Zurich andour more than 110 operations in the field, Swissport people are working hardto achieve that goal.
Breakthrough services call for breakthrough performance.And the concepton which breakthrough performance is based is the simple yet highly com-plex notion of the “self-reinforcing service circle”. This circle consists of anumber of key components: heightened customer satisfaction ➞ increasedcustomer retention ➞ higher sales and profit ➞ improved quality andproductivity ➞ better value-for-money for the customer ➞ enhancedemployee satisfaction ➞ increased employee retention and even highercustomer satisfaction!
With enhanced training for our employees, ISO 9002 certification of ouroperations, intensive management training, state-of-the-art IT,our new “Plus10” programme offering added value to airline customers and our UmbrellaIncentive Programme providing customers with numerous volume andquality benefits, Swissport has taken major steps to provide breakthroughservices and drive the self-reinforcing service circle.
If you’d like to know more about how we can make the most of your groundhandling, come and see us at the IGHC in Dubai (for further details, seepage 12). We’ll have a top management delegation on hand to discuss allyour ground handling needs. And we’d be delighted to do so. Because weknow that total customer satisfaction demands total customer dedication.
And that’s what we’ll keep giving.
Joseph In Albon, President & CEOSwissport International Ltd.
C O N TA C T S
Swissport in Switzerland
Head officeSwissport International Ltd., Joseph In Albon, President & CEO, P.O. Box, 8058 Zurich Air-port, [email protected], tel.: +41 1 812 27 79, fax: +41 1 811 10 01
Swissport International Ltd., Stephan Beerli, Executive Vice President Marketing & Sales,P.O. Box, 8058 Zurich Airport, [email protected], tel.: +41 1 812 49 50, fax: +41 1 811 10 01
Swissport International Ltd., Andy Bühlmann, Executive Vice President Finance, P.O. Box,8058 Zurich Airport, [email protected], tel.: +41 1 812 42 55, fax: +41 1 811 10 01
Swissport International Ltd., Stefan Resele, Executive Vice President Operations, P.O. Box,8058 Zurich Airport, [email protected], tel: + 41 1 812 75 93, fax: + 41 1 811 10 01
Swissport International Ltd., Urs von Euw, Chief Information Officer IT Management, P.O. Box,8058 Zurich Airport, [email protected], tel.: + 41 1 812 43 94, fax: + 41 1 811 10 02
Swissport International Ltd., Peter Sturzenegger, Vice President Global Supply Management,P.O. Box, 8058 Zurich Airport, [email protected], tel: + 41 1 812 01 89, fax: + 41 1 811 10 02
BrazilSwissport Brazil Ltda., Dieter Altenburger, President & CEO, Av. Vinte de Janeiro s/n,Via de Serviço – Rua T/103, Ilha do Governador, 21941-570 Rio de Janeiro – RJ,[email protected], tel.: +55 21 398 59 31, fax: +55 21 398 59 32
EgyptEAS Egyptian Aviation Services, Klaus Schmidt, General Manager, Cairo International AirportTerminal 2, Arrival Hall,Cairo, tel.: +20 2 291 89 27, fax: +20 2 291 89 26
ItalySogaerDyn, Giorgio Orru, General Director, Aeroporto di Cagliari Elmas, 09030 Elmas,[email protected], tel.: +39 070 212 076, fax: +39 070 212 597
KenyaSwissport Kenya, Olav Everts, CEO, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Unit 2,P.O. Box 44549, Nairobi, [email protected], [email protected],tel.: +254 2 82 20 20, fax: +254 2 82 23 29
MexicoSwissport Mexico S. A., Fernando Rodriguez Galvez, General Manager, Quetzalcoatl 113,3er.piso, Col. Peñon de los Baños, C.P. 15520, Del Venustiano Carranza, Mexico D. F.,[email protected], tel.: +52 5 784 21 25, fax: +52 5 785 28 17
The PhilippinesMiascor, Juan C. Paraiso III, President & CEO, Citadel Holdings, Inc., 4th Floor,SGV II Bldg. 6758 Ayala Avenue, Makati City, [email protected], tel.: +632 851 96 47,fax: +632 851 96 80
Puerto RicoSwissport Puerto Rico Inc., Hanspeter Schurter, CEO, 150 Carr. Sector Central, Suite 14,L.M.M. International Airport, 00979, Carolina. [email protected], tel.: +1 787 791 48 28,fax: +1 787 791 30 95
United StatesDynAir Ground Services Group, Erich Bodenmann, President & CEO, 45025 Aviation Drive,20166 Dulles, VA 20166, [email protected], tel.: +1 703 742 43 01, fax: +1 703 742 43 21
10 more reasons to choose Swissport.
Swissport provides world-class ground handling services to 322 airlines at over110 airports in 20 countries around the globe. The big difference is people who care – from landing to take-off! We invite you to contact us. Phone:+41 1 812 49 50, Fax: +41 1 811 10 01, [email protected], www.swissport.com
CustomerForum – you benefitfrom regular opportunities toreview your service profile.
GroundSpeed – you benefitfrom our extra efforts to makeup for operational delays.
PaxAssist – you benefit from experienced problem-solverswho assist your passengers.
ISO/TQM – you benefitfrom a standardizedservice quality levelaround the world.
Check@In – you benefitfrom additional check-inmethods based onintelligent automation.
GoodWill – you benefit from our dedication to enhancedpassenger satisfaction.
Lost@Found – you benefit from our innovative way to deal with misdirected luggage.
InfoLine – you benefit from new services that ease the workload for your call centers.
BonusPlan – you benefit from attractiveterms for high-volume multi-stationbusiness
QualReport – you benefitfrom transparent reportson how we serve and savefor you.
