The company first received the Safety Excellence Program – Gold Award for its commitment to the United Airlines Safety Excellence Program, which aims to significantly reduce aircraft damage and injuries on the ground – making it the third time that the prize has been awarded to the Lisbon station – once in the Silver and twice in the Gold category.
Then it was recently accredited with the ISAGO certification for Lisbon, Oporto and Funchal. This international certification authenticates the compliance of operation safety standards for organisation and management, load control, passenger and baggage handling, aircraft handling and loading, aircraft ground movement, as well as cargo and mail handling.
“We feel a strong sense of pride and joy to be able to receive this impactful recognition in such challenging times for aviation. It clearly escalates our responsibility to keep on deserving our customers’ trust,” said Tayob.
“As a handler we are on a mission to prioritise safety and security above all else and this means the daily fulfilment of a tremendous number of minute procedures and regulations, per airline. Renewing ISAGO Certification and getting this safety recognition means we didn’t lower our standards despite the status quo. Most importantly, this was only possible with the exceptional teams we rely on.”
What really makes Groundforce Portugal stand out from other airport service providers, he said, is the staff.
“We have very well prepared, experienced, and resilient employees. Catering to a variety of clients provides us with the opportunity to consolidate our internal experience. Different approaches, specific procedures and many different types of aircraft have helped us establish our intellectual property through the years. We sincerely believe that makes the difference,” he said. “Safety is in our DNA. We are focused on safety promotion from the top to bottom and we have a specific Safety Communication plan, deployed each year. We use our internal channels to share content on the topics we want to work better or that require improvement.”
Preventing ramp accidents
Groundforce Portugal’s employees are provided with all the key information they need to be successful while assisting their customers through initial and refreshment training. Also, as an ISO 9001-2015 Certified company, they have the duty of keeping track of all information, which they update on their Document Manager, which is accessible to everyone. Secondly, they have an SMS - Safety Management System, which allows to control, analyse, and report safety issues, in line with specific standards, managed by their operational teams and controlled by their safety team.
He added: “On the other hand, it is paramount to take care of human factors, which at the present time (and with all the problems the global aviation market is suffering from), may prove to be quite challenging.”
When asked what challenges handlers are facing to ensure safety standards are adhered to, he remarked: “Let’s not sugar coat it: we are all facing unprecedented times. Air travel demand has boosted almost to the levels of 2019 and the pandemic disruption led to the decrease of employees. It is, in fact, one of the many disruptive measures that companies had to take to survive. Times were (and still are) uncertain, with the rise of inflation, the present war in Europe and let’s not forget, climate change. We are all feeling its effects. Nevertheless, we are strongly committed to deliver excellence and we are very lucky to have such a great team.”
He believes electric GSE, AI or data science will surely impact how tasks are carried out, particularly regarding timing and the accuracy of tasks, which will impact safety and security. “Technology changes the way businesses interact with their customers, make strategic decisions, and build workflows. Operations are improving and there is no Plan B. Aviation is changing, mainly due to the ecological emergency but also because the customer experience has completely changed in the past few years. Airports are evolving and all aeronautical stakeholders must move along to keep up the pace.”
Proud and humbled to be chosen and trusted by their customers, whose pains Tayob says are theirs from baggage disruption, flight cancellations, etc. “Aviation communities are strong, well prepared, and solution-focused and we strongly believe that the storm will end, and the future will bring the stability we all need,” he said.
