Bjørn Erik Barman-Jenssen, director of ground operation at Norwegian Air Shuttle, has a simple solution to speeding up ramp services for his airline at European airports. He invites the ground handlers and airport controllers to Norway to see how it can be done quicker.
“Certain airports in Norway have a minimum 20-minute turnaround time for the Boeing 737 and 800s. We can manage that in Norway as we have worked closely with the ground handlers to find the right procedures and set-ups. We have to be fast because the cost of a man-hour in Norway is extremely high. But when I travel out in Europe, they laugh and say they cannot do it in 20 minutes. I say, ‘How come? We can do it in Norway, why not in….?’”
When the ground handlers and airport managers see it for themselves, they start to believe it is possible, he says. Servisair’s team at Gatwick, for example, changed some of their processes as a result of a trip out to Oslo.
“We had a huge challenge at Gatwick. The handlers could do easyJet or Ryanair flights easily in 30 minutes, but it was much harder for Scandinavian flights because we have more than double the baggage. So we invited both the airport and ground handler from Gatwick over to Oslo to show them our set-up,” he explains.
The Norwegian team asked Servisair to time their own processes in Gatwick, then time the process again in Oslo under the guidance of Norwegian’s main ground handler in Scandinavia – Aviator. “When they see what can be achieved, they take the initiative themselves,” Barman-Jenssen says.
He notes that there are a number of differences in approach taken by handlers, but one of the most significant is simply using trolleys to unload baggage instead of flatbeds. “In the UK, they tend to use a lot of flatbeds for baggage, but in Scandinavia we use trolleys for everything. It’s much faster and you use fewer people,” Barman-Jenssen considers.
As a result, Servisair has changed its operation on the ramp at Gatwick, as well as at all the other European stations where it handles Norwegian’s flights, he informs.
Norwegian’s forward-thinking approach also led Gatwick to introduce self-service bag tag printing. “BAA owned Gatwick up to 2009 and they said we couldn’t do this, so we also invited them to Oslo and showed them our self-service set-up. As a result, we were the first ones to introduce bag tag printing and self-service bag drops at Gatwick. Now self-service bag drops have been installed in Alicante and Barcelona,” Barman-Jenssen says.
Investment
Norwegian – unlike most of its low-cost rivals – has also invested in sliding carpets for all its aircraft. Sliding carpets are conveyor belts that enable loaders to stow and unload cargo faster and more efficiently. The sliding carpet covers the floor of the aircraft’s cargo hold and transports the cargo from the loading hatch into the hold. This is much more ergonomic for the cargo loaders in comparison to having to crawl into the cramped space.
“We do all this to reduce the number of staff needed. We take on board the initial cost of the investment and benefit from lower handling costs in the long run. About 75% of our handling costs come from the manpower needed, so if we can do without manpower we will keep prices at a reasonable level instead of them increasing as salaries rise,” he observes.
Barman-Jenssen explains that ground handlers are being forced to face up to the fact that low-cost airlines are the major source of growth in the industry. “That means there are increasing demands to speed up ramp services. At Norwegian, we have an average 25-minute turnaround time, whereas a legacy airline will have a 45-minute turnaround time,” he says. “For us, it’s important to have a high utilisation of aircraft and crew, as it’s the only way we can make money in this business. We also invited both the Swedish airport operator Swedavia and the Finnish airport operator Finavia over to Gatwick to show them how we work together.”
There are potential benefits for both the airports and ground handlers, as faster speeds enhance productivity. “We want to make as small a footprint as possible at Gatwick because then they can have a high utilisation of the gates, runways and taxi ranks,” Barman-Jenssen notes. “Often in this business, you get the airlines arguing with the airports and the airports arguing with the handlers. But we have a different approach which benefits everyone.”
He believes that Norwegian’s ground-handling efficiency, in particular the speed of its ramp services, has been one of the main drivers behind its growth, which is now around 25-30% a year in a market which has proved turbulent for most airlines. In 2012, Norwegian announced the an order for 22 B737-800 and 100 B737 MAX 8 aircraft, with an option for another 100 of the latter. Also on order are 100 A320neo aircraft, with an option on another 50. The airline has become the third-largest low-cost carrier in Europe and the second-largest airline in Scandinavia with 17.7 million passengers in 2012.
Barman-Jenssen says that efficient ramp services have also played their part in creating a public perception of Norwegian as a reliable airline. “We have been top of the league for flight statistics for the past few years and that’s down to extremely efficient ground-handling operations,” he says. “We place a lot of emphasis on it. If we are struggling in one destination with our ground handler, we don’t just let that situation drag on and on. If they don’t deliver quality, we just change to a different handler.”
Norwegian rarely has to resort to such drastic action. Its reputation has grown so much that ground handlers pull out all the stops to stay on board. “When I started at Norwegian in 2007 some of the handlers had not heard of Norwegian, but now everyone wants to work with us, so it’s easier to get the attention of ground handlers. If the local teams don’t deliver quality the central managers will engage in fixing the local problems,” he insists.
A different approach
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is a huge operation, by any standard. It can boast having flown 134 million on-board customers in 2012. Having acquired AirTrans Airways in 2009, it now flies to 86 destinations.
While both Southwest and Norwegian are major carriers on their own continent, there are significant differences in approach. Whereas Southwest focuses on North America, Norwegian has expanded out of Europe into the Middle East, North Africa and the US.
The two airlines also have a very different approach to ground handling. Norwegian outsources everything, but Southwest rarely outsources ramp handling services. Doug Currie, Southwest Airlines senior director ground operations, says: “Southwest and AirTran employees perform the ramp functions at a majority of the cities we serve. We have around 8,000 of our own employees working on the ramp, which might change as we introduce more Boeing 800s over the next few years. But we do use contracted workers in 13 domestic cities and at our international cities.”
Currie notes that Southwest has a system in place to monitor the performance levels of all its locally based staff. “In-house Southwest teams work with the ‘employees in the field’ to identify opportunities to increase productivity and efficiencies. Currently, the stations – what we call our ‘operation’ at each airport – have ‘continuous improvement teams’ made up of local employees and leadership to identify specific needs of the station and implement changes.”
Empowering local employees and leaders to identify areas of improvement enhances the efficiency of the ramp services, he feels. “They have a vested interest in the success of their station so they take ownership of their performance.”
Currie insists that safety is always the airline’s number one priority. It has a number of methods to promote safety, but one of the primary ones is a thorough audit process, which continues to grow. “The detailed audit ensures compliance with governmental and company policies and encourages employees to proactively report any condition, action, or process which may adversely affect safety or security,” he says.
Flexibility
Meanwhile, the ground handlers themselves are aware of the need to strike up good partnerships with the airlines. For example, one of the world’s largest ground handlers, Swissport, works with many different airlines, including Air France, Lufthansa, Swiss International and United Airlines, as well as low-cost carriers easyJet and Ryanair.
The scale of Swissport’s operations worldwide means it has to be flexible in its approach. It provides ground services for around 118 million passengers and 3.5 million tonnes of cargo a year at 180 airports in 37 countries on five continents.
Matthias Huettner, Swissport’s head of operations processes and services, remarks: “Quality targets are nowadays precisely defined in service level agreements (SLAs) between the airline and the handling agent. In most cases, these SLAs focus on punctuality, delivery times and handling errors. Efficiency not only affirms good quality being delivered, but also assures the wellbeing of Swissport as a company, thus allowing us to be a strong and reliable partner for airlines in the long term. At the same time, this links back to safety and quality, as only a financially sound operation allows us to properly invest into training of staff and the provision of sufficient and well-maintained equipment.”
The striving for greater efficiencies is an ever-increasing expectation of customer airlines. “Their demands do sometimes impose a challenge, but a good approach is to go step by step on the improvement ladder and jointly search for efficiency gains together with the client in order to maintain stable and lasting relationships with our customers,” he says.
Ramp service requirements can vary depending on the type of flight. For example, the equipment required will depend on whether the aircraft is containerised or not. “Whilst pure bulk load can be handled manually, or with a belt loader and carts, containers require a lower deck loader and dollies for the transport. At the same time, depending on whether a network carrier or a point-to-point operator is serviced, transfer baggage may need to be segregated. The same principle applies if the operator offers only one or multiple classes on its flight.”
Changes in the aviation market have also had an impact on ramp services. Increased security levels now demand the closure of hold doors whenever an aircraft is unattended. The new aircraft types also change the nature of the service. “To take one example, the A380 needs very strong push-back equipment,” Huettner adds.
