ground.net is the first network for ground handlers, not based on any equity basis, able to provide local expertise aligned with the possibility of offering economic incentives with respect to multi-station deals. Airline Ground Services caught up with Dieter R. Streuli, ground.net board member and CEO of Airline Assistance Switzerland, and Mary Jovic, ground.net sales and marketing manager
Tackling the challenge facing regional, independent ground handling providers in competing with industry global players was the main driver behind the formation of ground.net. Its purpose is to create access to a professional European network and to offer customers a wide range of multi-station network deals where tailor-made solutions to individual customer requests become standard throughout the network.
That is the assertion of Dieter R Streuli, ground.net board member and CEO of Airline Assistance Switzerland. He says: “Furthermore, it is also very important to us as members of ground.net to learn from each other and to join our forces to improve our operational processes. Transfer of best practice is the name of the game.”
The new concept is for a strong partnership between local European ground handling providers combining local expertise, connections and flavour with international presence and the possibility of additional discounts for ‘network customers’. Within the partnership, members share the network, knowledge and synergies.
Streuli says: “Doing it the ‘old’ way doesn’t allow us to enjoy those benefits. In addition, in the ‘old’ days ground handling networks were either huge corporations that were able to offer network deals to potential customers, or loosely associated ground handling companies. The latter were using such an association mainly for marketing reasons but without the ability to provide a network incentive model in an economical sense.”
In Streuli’s view, this was the main reason why such loose associations were not long-lasting entities and therefore not able to provide a real alternative to the large ground handling companies.
ground.net is the first network, not based on any equity basis, able to provide local expertise aligned with the possibility to offer economic incentives with respect to multi-station deals. This enables it to compete with the ‘big ones’ in the ground handling industry, notes Streuli. He says: “The success of our co-operation is confirmed by the fact that we were able to win several acknowledged airlines as ground.net network customers over the last couple of months. We believe this is only the beginning and the co-operation will successfully grow in the future.”
Procedures and knowhow
Not only do ground.net members benefit from a wide network: customers do, too. When a customer is happy with a certain station, procedures and knowhow can easily be transferred to any of its other stations. This ensures an efficient and time-saving process for the customer when choosing a new ground.net station.
Quality standards ensure that an experienced ground.net team always accompanies a customer when starting up at a new station. The team trains and prepares the employees and ensures a smooth start-up by giving the customer the certainty that experienced staff are on hand and initial problems and questions can be solved quickly, not only on a management level but even more often on a ramp staff and passenger service agent level.
ground.net has implemented several start-ups where a couple of experienced head-loaders from AeroGround Munich assisted the ramp staff in Zurich for several weeks and showed them the necessary procedures including client specific requirements. Similar training workshops have been conducted with GH Italia experts for all possible areas of activities, such as, passenger service , cleaning services or planning.
Expertise
Each of the members has specific expertise in ground handling. One example is Aviator in Scandinavia, which is an expert in de-icing services – while Greek handler Goldair Handling has recently won the GSE Safety Innovation Award. AAS is definitely the champion in resource planning and has recently developed a revolutionary new planning concept together with experts from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Streuli says: “By sharing our best practice among all members, we transfer our knowledge to all our stations. This is done either with basic ground handling standards, such as ISAGO, but also with specific airline knowhow, such as working out standardised multi-station service-level agreements (SLAs) for customers.
“The close co-operation has a direct impact on the enhancement of our quality standard. The transparency between the members allows us to gain knowledge and thereby raise the standards in a very effective and cost-efficient way.”
Association
ground.net does not have membership fees as it is an association with the aim of sharing knowledge and synergies, creating sales and marketing activities as well as intelligence and support. It also aims to develop best practices for common ground service equipment procurement.
Mary Jovic, ground.net sales and marketing manager says: “We share marketing and other expenses. But also in this regard we all highly benefit from ground.net by presenting each other together at ground handling conferences and joining our forces in other marketing measures.
“Our meetings mostly take place in a member’s office. It is important to maintain close co-operation in order to promote a partnership most effectively.”
Membership is open to regional providers of ground handling services, irrespective of the country or territory. New members are chosen which strategically make sense to join the alliance. Jovic says it is a challenge to balance the right set-up and mindset of potential members and on the other side to eliminate a potential concurrence situation with each other.
She says: “A new member should expand our network with additional stations with the focus on the customer’s needs. For us it is crucial to grow together with our customers than just grow for the sake of being present in as many places as possible. The best way for us is when an airline asks us to add one of their ground handlers to our network.”
Growth ambitions
Expansion from the current membership number is not a priority, says Jovic. She says: “Expansion is not our main target, but yes, we would like to cover some further parts of Europe. We are in the lucky position that we already have several ground handlers approaching us by expressing their aim to join us.
“As already mentioned, growth is appreciated but it has to be a qualitative growth and not simply a growth in numbers.”
The business topic du jour in the United Kingdom – Brexit – is not troubling ground.net, says Streuli. He considers: “If Britain should leave the EU the impact on ground.net would not be substantial. But to be honest, we focus on our expertise, ground handling, and let the politicians do their job!”
