Now that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, people are eager to travel again. This presents a safety issue because staff numbers were cut due to travel being near-enough impossible.
New staff need to be trained and existing staff may need re-training and in an increasingly competitive labour market, ground handling needs to be attractive because people can always look elsewhere.
To train staff, AtlasAvia has developed the Mock-Up Trainer for use in passenger and cargo operations in environments that are familiar on the ramp. It has been a long journey to get this far; the prototype came out and was exhibited in 2015, and was at the Inter Airport Europe last year.
Christoph Fladung, CEO of AtlasAvia said there was some growing interest in the vehicle at the trade fair but a consistent theme was that ground handling companies were still doing this GSE training on the job.
Stuttgart Airport took advantage of the opportunity presented by AtlasAvia’s Mock-Up Trainer and bought two units last year. The airport needed to replace its old container training units and contacted AtlasAvia in 2018 for help. It was the beginning of a big project and AtlasAvia’s two Mock-Up vehicles were delivered to the airport in March and August 2021.
The multi-use training vehicle has been designed for beltloaders, cargo loaders, jet bridges as well as for ambulift catering and air start units at the airport. It can reach 1.3m to 5m and is suitable for most aircraft types.
The feedback from Stuttgart Airport about the Mock-Up Trainers has been very positive and now the units form part of the airport’s training capabilities for new and existing employees. Even for experienced staff, refresher training is important to eliminate complacency.
Fladung commented: “At some point, we know how to drive but are not always following the rules. An aircraft is an aircraft and if you don’t follow the rules and you hit it, it can cost a lot.”
He has a history with training (or a lack of it), driving catering trucks at airports. “They said you can drive the truck and go up to an aircraft. You sit next to someone five times and then you can do it all by yourself. For me, it was chaotic and stressful.”
When designing the Mock-Up vehicle, AtlasAvia wanted it to be flexible and easy to use because if staff are trained and are shown that employers care about their work, they will be more motivated and will take greater care in their work.
Covid has been challenging for aviation due to people losing their jobs or working reduced hours. Now things are opening up again, this is an opportunity as new staff need to be trained and existing staff need retraining.
Fladung is confident that the Mock-Up is ready to be rolled out to other airports and ground handlers to meet their training demands.
He explained: “We have to take care of the employees as they are getting jobs in other industries, easier jobs without the headaches, such as bad weather, and are getting more money. So, somehow we have to improve training and how we treat employees.”
Proper training not only improves safety but also has financial benefits, he added: “New employees need training, and airlines have to understand that if ground handling companies have not trained their employees properly, their aircraft can be damaged. We are not saying this will stop all damage but more training means less damage.”
For further information on AtlasAvia’s Mock-Up Trainer visit www.atlasavia.de
