G R O U N D H A N D L I N G
handling Amendments to European laws and the
introduction of new safety standards
are expected to cause major change
in the ground handling sector
Words | Ben Sampson
BUSINESS AIRPORT INTERNATIONAL A P R I L 2 0 2 0 |
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forced to buy services from one of the two ground handlers.
“We have to train the ground handling staff to handle the
business jets and they use a towing tractor that belongs to
us. But we have to stand around and wait for them to move
an aircraft 30m into a hangar.
“We have our own terminal, heated hangar and parking
spaces that are not connected to the infrastructure of the
main airport. But it’s not easy to enable a high level of
service when you are dependent on just two handlers.”
Juergen Wiese, director of aviation for BMW and former
chairman of the EBAA said that the application of the
Directive is not standardized across member states.
The handling requirements of
business aviation operators are
different compared to those of
large commercial airlines
(EC) in whichever way they see fit. One of the strongest
criticisms of the Ground Handling Directive 96/97 is that it
is not uniformly applied across the EU. Riga International
Airport provides a case to illustrate what can happen
when liberalization is not pursued sufficiently in the ground
handling market. There are two licenses for ground handling
services at Riga. One is for the airport, the second was
opened up for tender.
Aija Veisa is director of FBO Riga, which opened at Riga
International Airport in 2015. Speaking at the EBAA’s Air
Ops conference in Brussels earlier this year she said, “We
were formally refused from the competition and are now