LATEST ISSUE
Autumn 2021
I did a remarkable thing the other day – I searched for flights on an airline website. It was fun, thinking about itineraries, transfers, taxis, hotels, meetings, etc, all the paraphernalia of travel.
Puzzlingly I am also looking forward to the airport security rigmarole. That’s weird isn’t it.
Some of you will already be travelling. A handful of us never stopped. Many are scanning the event diaries pondering whether a trip to World Routes in Milan in October is possible; should they factor in IATA’s Ground Handling Conference in Prague in November; is the Dubai Airshow, also in November, going to be a must-attend?
Is our confidence in travel high enough to get flying again? Will your business policies allow you to travel? Will your country or the country you want to visit let you in?
There are still many questions to be answered before our business rituals return to 2019 norms. And it’s likely our new normal will be different. We will question the need for a trip much more deeply than before. We will be more budget conscious. We will demonstrate ROI (return on investment) and ROT (return on time). We will think about the environmental impact of our travel and pay for the carbon we use.
This is all wonderful and rational. But, speaking for myself, and I suspect plenty of us, I am ready to work beyond the digital straitjacket again. In fact, I’m desperate to break free.
So, from myself and my colleagues at EVA International, the publisher of Airline Routes & Ground Services, in addition to Airside International, Executive & VIP Aviation International and Cargo Airports & Airline Services, we look forward to meeting you again. Face to face. We look forward to working with you as aviation rebuilds.
At this point I would like to thank the publisher of EVA International Parveen Raja, for the opportunity to edit ARGS. I have known Parveen for many years, and her entrepreneurial and dynamic spirit made it an easy decision for me to work with her and her team based in the south London suburb of Croydon.
My background is aviation reporting. Parveen and I were there at the launch of Ground Handling International magazine back in the late 1990s. We both worked on airport titles such as Airports International, Airport World and Airport Support. And then I went to FlightGlobal, Airline Business and Flight International.
I have already been talking to many industry contacts in airports, airlines, and handlers for this issue. The results are in the following pages. I’ve also asked my good friends and industry experts Mike Miller and Shakeel Adam to contribute to this issue. Their thoughts on the US and Gulf markets are right on the money.
I trust you will enjoy their writing and find the thoughts of the industry leaders in this issue stimulating and insightful. I welcome your feedback, input, criticism and/or praise.
Most of all, I look forward to meeting you again.
See you soon.
Take A Peek
Featured in this issue
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The US recovery story
The US airline recovery is uneven, as ultra low-cost carriers attack to gain market share, and is touching airlines and airports differently as chaos in planning and staffing has disrupted millions of...
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Pressure to change
On everyone’s mind in the aviation industry is how to recover from the dramatic fall-off in traffic and revenue brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this recovery is largely out of an indiv...
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New Swissport chief lays out his priorities
In May this year, Warwick Brady officially stepped into the hot seat of president and CEO of globally active ground services provider and cargo handler Swissport. It’s been a challenging time in whi...
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Menzies looks for safe recovery
“We were glad to see the back of 2020,” says Mervyn Walker, Chief Operating Officer of Menzies Aviation, the global aviation logistics specialist which provides services at over 200 locations in m...
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Iceland tempts traffic back
The number one focus for Grétar Már Garðarsson, Director, Airline Relations & Route Development and his team at Isavia is simple: “Get our airlines back. It doesn’t matter about frequency o...
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Havaş takes tentative first recovery steps
According to Mehmet Bozdemir, Operations Deputy General Manager at major Turkish ground handler Havaş, a recovery to 2019 business figures should be achieved in 2023. “Regarding the latest situatio...
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Going Far Together
Egypt has taken several safety measures in attempts to control the outbreak of Covid-19 while reducing the hard effects such decisions could take on the economy and the Egyptian people, Mohamed Hanno,...
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Get-e takes transfers seriously
Get-e is able to help support airlines, delivering safe and reliable crew transfers. “Crew arriving late to the airport results in delayed take-off, dissatisfied passengers, and financial loss for a...
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For Worldwide Flight Services resilience is key
“The aviation industry has never before experienced anything like Covid and, of course, it’s not only airlines which have been so severely impacted but all of the other key service providers airli...
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Everything changes
Becca Rowland, partner at leading consultancy MIDAS Aviation, looks at how air travel in a post-Covid 19 world will develop by following a fictional traveller’s journey between the UK and Malaysia ...
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CODA’s critical connectivity role
CODA - the rhythmic acronym of City of Derry Airport – is playing a strong role in reviving travel, both leisure and business, in its gateway role for the Northwest of Ireland. According to Manag...
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Çelebi determined to rise together
Thomas Konietzko’s sales team now has another airport station added to its ground handling offering – Dar es Salaam, the largest city in the east African country of Tanzania. “We now have equipm...
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Bridging the Gulf
The Gulf’s big three – Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways – all have significant challenges to restore their fortunes. Shakeel Adam, managing director of Aviado Partners, takes a deep dive into ...
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Berlin: opening an airport during a pandemic
Berlin Brandenburg Airport BER Terminal 1 opened on 31 October 2020 and the operation of the new aviation site for Germany´s capital region was functional from day one. But due to a new Covid-19 lock...
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Athens pushes hard for strong restart
The year 2020 was, by any standard, the most challenging in the history of aviation. The pandemic is having a profound and lasting industry impact, with structural repercussions of unprecedented magni...
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Amsterdam’s networking effect
Nearly all airlines that were operating to Amsterdam prior to Covid-19 have either continued flying to the airport or have returned. Some airlines did however change their type of operation, for examp...
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