Picture: Menzies Aviation
The proposals are designed to increase safety, cybersecurity and consistency of ground services to benefit airlines, passengers and the 300,000 ground handling staff across EU airports.
Ground handling is largely self-regulated and in most cases operational agreements are only captured in bilateral service agreements between service providers and airlines they serve.
An efficient approach to oversee ground handling organisations by competent authorities is being proposed, which is expected to avoid multiple verifications of the same activities and organisational aspects with the intention of reducing the number of audits performed mostly by aircraft operators.
Luc Tytgat, Acting Executive Director of EASA said a large ground handling company operating at 100 stations can be subjected to over 600 audits by external stakeholders every year.
He said: “In future, air operators will be able to rely on the results of oversight performed only once by the competent authority and reduce their own audits only to the necessary additional aspects. This will reduce costs and free up resources to focus on more critical operations.”
The regulation will also ensure that ground handling is covered by Regulation 2022/1645 on cybersecurity.
The new regulation would require ground handling organisations and self handling aircraft operators to self declare that they comply with the EU requirements.
EASA says this can either be by applying operational procedures developed by themselves or industry standards and good practices developed and improved over the decades.
Organisations will need to prove that they have a management system in place, which includes a safety management system, training for staff, a maintenance programme for ground support equipment defined operational procedures.
These need to be combined with a robust safety culture where safety issues are reported without penalty to the reporter, swiftly addressed and used as a lesson to further improve safety.
The regulation is expected to be published late this year or early next year and a 3 year transition period is being proposed to implement the regulation.
"As the world´s largest aviation ground services provider, Swissport welcomes EASA`s proposal for the implementation of ground handling regulations across Europe," says Warwick Brady, President & CEO of Swissport International.
"The regulations will ensure a better standard of operations and will help reinforce the critical role that ground handling plays in aviation safety. Together with EASA and ASA we must make sure the regulations provide a level playing field for ground handlers to deliver safe and sustainable operations that support the wider ESG agenda of the aviation industry.
"We now encourage other national authorities to implement the same requirements to deliver a truly global set of standards."
"dnata fully supports EASA's proposal which marks a significant milestone in European aviation. All industry stakeholders will benefit from the implementation of minimum standards for quality and safety. This initiative also aligns with our ongoing efforts to deliver consistent world-class services at every airport across our operations.
We will continue to engage with EASA and our partners to further enhance safety, operational efficiency and passenger experience throughout the airport journey.
We encourage and trust that other aviation authorities will consider adopting the same approach to foster regulatory measures in their respective regions," said Steve Allen, CEO of dnata Group.
Philipp Joeinig, CEO of Menzies Aviation, said: "The newly announced EASA ground handling regulations represent a significant step towards a unified standard for operations on the ramp at airports across Europe. It will serve to create a fair competitive landscape with consistent, standardised operations, streamlined auditing requirements and a best practice example for the wider aviation industry.
"We support EASA and are committed to working towards a global standard, driving service delivery, and continuing to encourage a safety-first culture. We look forward to seeing the full draft of the regulation when it is published later this year and working with EASA to ensure safe and sustainable operations across the industry, for the benefit for all."
The Opinion is available on the EASA website, which can be accessed here.
