Pictured: Fabio Gamba, Director General of ASA World
ASA World has released a state of the industry report in collaboration with consultancy firm, Steer, which analyses the challenges and opportunities, and proposes actionable steps to give ground handling a more resilient and sustainable future.
The report says that the aviation services industry produced global revenue of $64 billion and provided 1.1 million direct jobs, down 12% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Aviation services generated $38 billion of gross value added (GVA) and its total contribution including indirect and induced GVA was almost $100 billion.
The report highlighted some worrying trends including an intense focus on pricing as customers have trimmed their costs over the last decade.
The highly competitive nature of the sector lead to competition centred on costs rather than innovation due to low barriers to entry and high labour intensity.
Very high staff turnover rates caused challenges in recruitment and retention.
The absence of widely recognised and implemented industry standards are affecting training and impacting safety records.
Handlers have limited capacity to invest in new capital assets, which is hindering the green transition.
Fabio Gamba, Director General of ASA World says the report highlights the vital role of aviation services yet exposes the imbalance between its importance and revenue.
He said: “For too long, a race to the bottom has defined our business, with revenues declining by 4% annually over the past decade. This severely limits investment in innovation, training, and job retention, as employees face declining wages while productivity demand has increased by 17% in parallel.”
The executive summary can be accessed here (link opens in new tab).
