This issue is all about fresh new faces. Some have been promoted to leading roles in the past several months to take on exciting new challenges at both airlines and airports – Badr Mohammed Al-Meer of Qatar Airways and Selahattin Bilgen at Istanbul Grand Airport.
Some are entirely new to the aviation business – Jennifer Aument of the New Terminal One at New York JFK. Others are new to the industry but are a name you may not have previously come across – Gautam Thakkar of Unifi.
Exploring the vision, strategy and aspirations of these leaders in the airline, airport and ground services arena is one of the best parts of my job. Each story is different, but the drive to deliver a legacy of success and growth is etched in each one.
A common theme in their stories is people. Gautam Thakkar of Unifi began our conversation with the stories of Naweed Rahimzada and Olga Borishkevich, both part of the Atlanta-based company’s far-sighted refugee hiring programme, launched in 2021 and going from strength to strength.
Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, from the outset of his tenure with the Qatar Airways v2.0, told employees in a personal letter that he wants “a culture of trust and empowerment. My vision as a CEO is to listen to the employees.”

All leaders will tell you it’s the people that make a company, not the CEO. Creating and sustaining a people-centric culture in these businesses will be a key component of their success as they grow, and expansion is the plan for all of them.

We are pleased to welcome Arpad Szakal of Cormis Partners and Shakeel Adam of Aviado Partners to this issue. Szakal offers his thoughts on how to navigate the future of work in the new world of artificial intelligence, while Adam considers whether the industry’s growth party will hit a wall.

It is also that time of year when we are dusting off our travel bags, preparing meetings and presentations for events like Routes World in Bahrain, Aviation Connect in Istanbul, and a batch of airline and airport conferences across the globe.

ARGS will see you at many of them. EVA International’s Aviation Connect event gets a special mention. It takes place in Istanbul from 29 to 31 October and features the Airport Services Association (ASA) Leadership Forum, in addition to parallel events covering air cargo and the GSE industry.

ASA recently announced that it has been formally recognised by ICAO as an international association – a major achievement. “ASA has been an influential international trade body for over 25 years, and this recognition by ICAO reinforces its role in the global aviation landscape, in particular in the field of ground handling services,” said ASA.
The winter issue of ARGS will round up the stories from all these events and more. Until then, safe travels.

The post Autumn 2024 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

I defy anyone with more than 15 minutes to spare to resist the photo opportunity of visiting the stunning waterfall at the Jewel shopping and entertainment complex in Singapore.
Situated just metres away from the glorious mega-airport hub of Singapore Changi, the Rain Vortex is the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, according to Wikipedia.
Not only is the waterfall a fantastic sight and sound: the sheer number of visitors wondering at this spectacular feature is a visual reminder that Asia-Pacific air travel is back.
I passed through Changi twice en route to the Routes Asia event in Langkawi, Malaysia in late February, as well as transiting other regional hubs such as Bangkok and Auckland.
My visual evidence, and more properly observations from the stage speakers and delegates at the record-breaking Routes event, demonstrate that the Asia-Pacific is ready to resume its mantle as the world’s fastest-growing region.
The Routes Asia report spans several pages in this issue (from page 32), with stories on airlines and airports from across the spectrum, including Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and India. And there are new airports on the way too, offering new capacity at constrained hubs such as Delhi and Sydney.
Our roving correspondent Mike Miller was reporting from another fascinating continent – Latin America (see page 12). Routes Americas took place in March in Bogotá and the market is reviving. Colombian air transport leaders were brimming with confidence after a record-breaking 2023 for travel and regular new flight announcements.
The ARGS team took the opportunity of both Routes events to interview the leaders of two major airlines – Captain Izham of Malaysia Airlines (see page 4) and Roberto Alvo of LATAM Airlines (see page 8). Both carriers have had tough times, but their leaders are determined to put them on a steady and profitable course.
An industry name familiar to many of you will be Majid Khan. He was part of the senior team that has worked to help Istanbul Grand Airport reach mega-hub status over the past few years. Now he hopes to produce some magic to enable Saudi Arabia to meet its ambitious target of attracting 150 million visitors by 2030 as the CEO of the Saudi Air Connectivity Program (see page 30).
A name perhaps not all that familiar is ACCIONA Airport Services. Although it has been in the business of providing ground services for 30 years, it has mostly flown under the radar.
Victor Carballo, Managing Director of airport activities at ACCIONA, explains how the company is seeking to stand out in the ground services industry by taking on work that others might avoid (see page 22).
Finally, a plug for EVA International’s Aviation Connect event, which takes place in Istanbul on 29-31 October and features the Airport Services Association Leadership Forum. We look forward to seeing you there.

The post Summer 2024 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

Everybody knows there is an acute aircraft shortage, but surely turning back to the Boeing 737-200 to usher in new service smacks of desperation.
It was, therefore, surprising to read in February that Canadian charter carrier Nolinor Aviation is reintroducing a 737-200 following a seven-month-long refurbishment.
But before you start scouring the world for decrepit 737-200s to bolster your fleet, note that Nolinor wants the aircraft for its unique ability to operate on gravel runways in Canada’s remote northern territories.
Nolinor is responding to increasing demand for flights to these regions, especially amid the recent surge in mining activities in Nunavut driven by the global push towards electrification.
Across the globe, carriers are desperately seeking more metal to augment their fleets and regrow networks as traffic returns. A robust aircraft delivery flow helps. Air India, for example, said it is taking delivery of a new aircraft every six days for the coming two years.
Not everyone has this luxury. The result of restrained capacity growth has benefited airline yields and profits over the past 12-18 months, but most want to go faster than they can afford.
For airline planners and airport marketers alike, it is a frustrating time that will continue for several years.
However, the carriers able to add capacity are planning hard to profit from the post-pandemic traffic resurgence. As Emirates Airline Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim explains in this issue (see page 4) the airline is planning for an eventual move to Dubai World Central.
The Asia-Pacific market is returning fast as a fertile ground for low-cost carriers from Australia to Malaysia to spread their wings again. Tony Harrington brings us up to speed with the main players on page 16.
With Routes Europe making a welcome arrival in Aarhus in Denmark later this spring, the plans of Aarhus, Aalborg, Billund and Copenhagen are all examined. Everyone in the Nordics is waiting to see what the emergence of SAS from its bankruptcy process means. One thing we already know is it will leave the Star Alliance and join SkyTeam (see pages 26-37).
Another big airline shift is examined in detail by Shakeel Adam of Aviado Partners. On page 38 he analyses the pros and cons of the Alaska Airlines deal to acquire Hawaiian Airlines – the latest merger in the North American market.
In this truly global issue, African aviation is highlighted in an interview with Jonathan Lewis, the head of leading Zambian ground service player NAC2000 (see page 22), while Jenifer Bamuturaki, the CEO of Uganda Airlines (page 46), outlines her plans for this relaunched East African carrier.

The post Spring 2024 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

“This is our fate,” Samer Majali, Chief Executive of Royal Jordanian Airlines, commented ruefully, addressing delegates on the CEO panel at the 56th Arab Air Carriers’ Organisation (AACO) in late October.
He was addressing the impact on the Middle East, and the knock-on effect on air transport, of the Israel-Gaza conflict. Royal Jordanian has been here before, having built up experience of dealing with regional strife in circumstances such as the two Iraq wars.
Having a land border with Israel, and most of Royal Jordanian’s westbound flights usually flying over that country, means his carrier is more negatively affected than most. ARGS had talked to Majali just a week prior to the AACO meeting in Istanbul at Routes World, where his message was how focused this small Middle East carrier is on carving out a niche for itself as the connector for the Levant region.

Already up against the Gulf majors, Royal Jordanian’s task to return to the black just got tougher. The interview with Majali is found on page 14.
Black swan events, such as Covid and wars, bring unexpected challenges for air transport, but they are set against a broadly improving industry outlook. ARGS has been gauging this outlook over the past few months at Routes World and the Airport Services Association (ASA) Leadersship Forum.
ASA is busy raising its industry voice with more members and additional staffers, seeking to play a more active role in shaping ground services policy in areas like contracting and standards (see report on pages 22-28).

Service providers have ramped up this year as traffic has flowed back. Routes World in Istanbul in mid-October brought an industry together as if it had never paused for a pandemic. With the Asia-Pacific fully opened, China’s airports were back with a bang at the show, hungry to restore international services (see p32-34).
The main thing holding back even faster capacity growth is the slow pace of aircraft deliveries from the OEMs as they deal with supply chain issues.
This is causing severe headaches for airline planners, who are unsure when aircraft will arrive in their fleets and are resorting to expensive short-term leases to find capacity.
Our bumper Routes World report, with great input from Mike Miller, covers the main Turkish players, correspondent Pegasus CEO Güliz Öztürk (see p16), TAV Airports head Serkan Kaptan (see p20), and Istanbul’s iGA Grand Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport (see p40).

Elsewhere, Philipp Joeinig, the CEO of Menzies, explains how this services major intends to spread its wings over the coming 5-10 years (see p10), while our Brisbane correspondent Tony Harrington has delivered a superb analysis of the Australian market, asking how a crisis at Qantas has obscured, and may drive, momentous change in Australia’s skies (see p4). Tony, who is a wizard on headlines, has done it again for this article with ’The frying kangaroo’.

There is little doubt 2023 has seen the industry recover at pace despite its many challenges, such as staff shortages, sustainability and supply chains. Most of us would have taken what the year has given us as it kicked off. Now we take stock and contemplate what 2024 will bring.

The post Winter 2023 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

If you want a quick sense check on the industry’s position and outlook, IATA’s Quarterly Air Transport Chartbook is a handy guide. The Q2 report dropped into the ARGS editor’s inbox as the team prepared this issue for press.
It makes positive reading. IATA’s assessment is that with global GDP growth defying most recessionist predictions this year – it is around 3.0% on an annual basis – coupled with astonishingly strong labour markets, mostly in advanced economies but also elsewhere, the state of the business cycle is in a relative sweet spot.

We all know that traffic is back. Globally, domestic passenger traffic achieved full recovery in Q2 2023, standing 4.5% above Q2 2019 levels, driven by the resilience of the main domestic markets and the strong rebound in China, said IATA. The recovery in international traffic maintained its course in Q2 2023 and total international RPKs reached 87.6% of Q2 2019.
IATA expects the total industry to reach the full-year 2019 level in 2024, although this leaves traffic well below pre-pandemic forecasts.

Airlines globally have been reporting record-breaking profits over the past few months. Most, as American Airlines CEO Robert Isom recently said, are “firing on all cylinders”. In this issue we examine how the US giant is profitably adding services to Europe (see p15).

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is making the headlines on the aviation front. Not only is flag carrier Saudia on a major expansion and product transformation journey (see p26), but the country is establishing an all-new, full-service flag carrier in Riyadh Air (see p32). This is a rare occurrence.

Saudi Arabia’s ambitions and targets for travel and tourism are staggering, and the investment being pumped into the Kingdom’s air transport infrastructure is too. Delegates at Routes World 2023 in Istanbul in October will be battling for meetings with both carriers to get a slice of the action. See the ARGS event preview on page 46.
In the ground services world, as we reach the beginning of September, the summer has gone well. However, recruitment for all players remains an issue and will be a constant focus for years to come, but most have coped.

It is a business that still attracts investment and Alliance Ground International Chief Executive Jared Azcuy tells ARGS why the US-based company is on a mission to expand beyond its large North American footprint (see p4).

For airports, traffic recovery is welcome but often takes longer (compared to airlines) to translate into profitability. In this issue, ARGS talks to the CEOs of a variety of airports to assess their recovery paths, diversification and sustainability strategies and investment in new facilities: Martin Roll of Hannover (see p20), and Nick Barton of Birmingham International in the UK (see p36).
Now our thoughts turn to the autumn events, budget forecasts for 2024 and the business outlook for the rest of this year and into next. The big recovery is over, and some form of business as usual will prevail.

But we all know the air transport industry is volatile and risks to further recovery abound, so no one is complacent. We look forward to hearing your views at Routes World in Istanbul and the 2nd Airport Services Association Leadership Forum, being held in association with ARGS in Greek capital Athens on 20-22 September.

The post Autumn 2023 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

This is conference season. From March to June, many of us are lucky enough to attend events such as Routes Americas, Routes Europe, IATA’s Ground Handling Conference, the IATA Annual General Meeting, Jumpstart Air Service Development Conference, Paris Airshow and ACI World/Europe’s World Annual General Assembly.

Thank you to the cities and citizens of Chicago, Lodz, Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Milwaukee, Paris and Barcelona for hosting airports, airlines, handlers – and representatives from ARGS. Hopefully more of us than ever are offsetting our carbon emissions as we make our business travels.

The common theme is that air traffic is back, almost universally across the globe. The passenger and revenue tracking spreadsheets that have been plastered with red over the past few years are now green once more.
As Tony Harrington, our correspondent based in Brisbane, examines in this issue, the traffic growth engine that is China is firing again, finally. It has, as Tony observes, emerged from its long Covid, on both the domestic and international fronts. Analysts say that China’s air travel market will recover fully by 2025.

Overall, the Asian powerhouse of travel demand will pick up where it left off in 2019, surging again for the remainder of this century. No doubt, Routes World, being held in Istanbul from 15-17 October, will see a return of the Chinese hubs eager to reclaim airline capacity that has been diverted to Europe, Africa, or the Americas.

The picture of traffic recovery was clear in Chicago and Lodz too. As is common in a post-crisis period, the winners are often the most agile and the ones with the lowest costs. In both continents, low-cost carriers are gaining ground. Ryanair in Europe and Spirit Airlines in the USA are great examples of carriers able to grab opportunities to sprout new connections at speed.
However, there are challenges. In the USA, the recovery is uneven, coming as it does amidst a continued pilot shortage, which has led to the elimination of regional airline flights to 300 smaller and mid-sized cities.
In Europe, the market continues to be driven by leisure and VFR demand, and business travel is lagging, with ACI Europe’s Olivier Jankovec seeing a structural trend in corporate travel as it is increasingly being decided on sustainability criteria that reflect pressures from shareholders, consumers and society.

One of the most poignant presentations in Lodz was from Oleksiy Dubrevskyy, Chief Executive of Kiev Boryspil International Airport, who attended Routes Europe to explain how the airport intends to reopen as soon as the war in Ukraine ends.
Welcome as it is, the abrupt traffic recovery of last summer 2022 caused chaos in some regions. The talk in Abu Dhabi at the IATA IGHC centred on the ability of the industry to cope this year. Everyone said they are confident the industry can manage the uptick. The impression was there are still plenty of fingers being crossed that it will.
For all players in the services industry getting through this summer is only the first challenge. The issue of recruitment and retention is pressing and will remain for several years. Wage inflation is commonly in the double-digit range and competition for staff is raging at many airports.

ARGS will report on all these issues as they ebb and flow over the course of this year, and more. We look forward to continuing to engage with colleagues at events – including the 2nd Airport Services Association Leadership Forum that will be held in association with ARGS in Athens on 20-22 September.

The post Summer 2023 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

It is staggering to write about the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this note a year ago, I talked about how on 24th of February 2022, “the clock stopped for normal life” for Ukrainians, and many others. The capital Kiev’s main airport of Boryspil International and its smaller neighbour Kyiv Sikorsky, as well as Ukraine’s airspace, closed – and remain so.

For most the thought that the invasion would happen in the first place, bringing war to Europe, was unthinkable. Once you come to terms with that tragic reality you ask: when will it end? In February 2022 who among us believed it would last a year? The prospects for the war ending soon appear glum. Some are predicting it could last for years.

Have a look at Boryspil Airport’s Facebook page and see how Ukraine’s gateway is keeping its spirits up and trying to conduct some normal business. There’s the music video filmed in the empty terminal, the aviation security courses conducted at the airport’s ICAO training centre, and the training of 144 operators from Lithuanian handler Litcargus in aircraft de- and anti-icing in October 2022.

The situation at Russia’s airports is far from normal; however, they are operational. Domestic flights are now the exclusive realm of Russian airlines, while international hubs like Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo welcome a handful of international players from China, the Gulf, and Turkey, and a few others. A look at Flightradar24 is telling. It shows a clear gap between flights inside Russian territory and those outside. There are a few overflights of Russia by the likes of Air India, Chinese carriers, and Cathay Pacific, but otherwise Russia is isolated.

The continued impact of the war in Ukraine, global recession, climate events, inflationary fears, and energy security, are among the risks cited by those interviewed and writing in this issue as potential headwinds for the air transport industry. However, barring a curveball that would throw the industry off course again, Ryanair head Michael O’Leary is optimistic, saying: “This is the biggest growth opportunity I have seen for the last 20 years.”
Ryanair has a flow of new aircraft and a cost base that is enabling it to take advantage (see page 16). It has an established business model to seek an opportunity out of a crisis. United Airlines, meanwhile, believes it has a unique opportunity with a strong orderbook and operational resilience (see page 46).

As the headline for this issue states: “New year, new models: Resetting the strategy and business priorities to resume growth”. There are examples on every page. Singapore Airlines is leveraging a plethora of partnerships with carriers in neighbouring countries to significantly expand its network and create a superpresence in Asia (see page 4). Swissport is sharply focused on recruitment and retention as it expands (see page 12) and the service industry’s representative body ASA (Airport Services Association) is reinventing itself too (see page 44).

Patrick Edmond of Altair Advisory examines how the work of network planners will change in the face of the headwinds being faced and the new operating models being adopted (see page 22). This includes how an industry that must factor in decarbonisation to its growth aspirations can adapt.

These are all topics to consider, work through and assess our progress in a year’s time. I sincerely hope the narrative for our friends, family and colleagues in Ukraine and Russia will be positive during this year and that the Editor’s note in Spring 2024 will be vastly different to those of 2022 and 2023.

The post Spring 2023 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

Cast your mind back to the start of the year. What were your expectations of 2022 at that time? What was your forecast for the year?
It seems fantastic to recall that many parts of the globe were effectively still closed to international travel in the first three months of 2022 as the Omicron variant of the corona virus proliferated. As we made our plans at this time last year, the hope was that a whole 12 months of international travel freedom were in sight.

It was possible to travel in the January-March period, but it was far from easy. It is easy, however, to forget just what a hassle it was to repeatedly test for Covid, complete complex forms and avoid busy places in anticipation of an overseas mission. I vividly recall the inconvenience of testing for Covid daily after visiting the Singapore Air Show in February, in order to be able to attend the next day.
Contrast this draconian experience with that found on entry to the USA in October to attend the Routes World forum in Las Vegas. The Covid requirements there? Zero.

Industry leaders expect further pandemic breakouts but stress the governmental response should not put a halt to travel again. And some regions are lagging, and still suffering because of it. Asia, and particularly China, has been slow to reopen. We deliberately focused a large chunk of our reporting in the 20-page ARGS report from Routes World on that region’s airports and tourism bodies to gauge the mood and pace of recovery.
All Asia-Pacific players told us that the slow return of China was holding them back. Speaking at the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines’ Assembly of Presidents in Bangkok in November, Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Deputy Director General, summed up the industry mood: “We must learn to live, travel and work with Covid-19. We hope the Chinese government will have the confidence to re-open its borders soon and connect with the world.”
China’s continued closure is one headwind holding the industry back. Others are Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing war there and the ripple effect that is having on the global economy. Energy prices are spiralling up and recessionary effects abound.
Despite these headwinds, the mood at Routes in Las Vegas was buoyant. For some it was their first overseas business trip for three years. The competitive edge was there for all to see as airports, tourism bodies and regions jostled for attention. It is all the sharper given that some airlines have capacity constraints, which for many will continue into 2023.
There are structural changes in our industry too. The latest US airline merger is the proposed acquisition of Spirit Airlines by JetBlue Airlines. Tony Harrington reports in this issue of the new-look Indian airline industry with Air India one of those undergoing something of a renaissance as new investors and owners seek to capitalise on a vibrant market.
Consolidation in the ground services industry is also underway. Kuwaiti firm National Aviation Services tied up with Menzies Aviation earlier this year, and in September Singapore’s SATS announced a deal to buy Worldwide Flight Services. We talked to SATS head Kerry Mok to understand the rationale behind the move in this issue. And do not expect these changes to be the last: many believe that more consolidation is well overdue in the ground services arena.
As we enter the final few weeks of the year, one of the most frequently heard comments at recently attended events concerns the resilience of the air transport sector.
It is true, we are resilient. And boy have we needed to be. Now, let’s get planning for 2023. Bring it on.

The post Winter 2022 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill is credited with first saying, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” It is believed he was referring to the post-WWII political environment in the lead-up to the formation of the United Nations.
This phrase, which has become something of a business cliché, is being overworked as businesses emerge from the pandemic gloom of the past few years. Some will truly restructure and pursue radically different strategies. Others will roll out a trusted method and stay their previous course. No one answer fits all, of course.
Where is crisis-induced change likely, possible or even good? The most obvious answer is aviation’s sustainability drive and the target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Everyone is on that mission as they should be.

The focus for airlines , though, is on network restoration. There are few revolutions in the quest to fill airplanes again. It will take new sustainable aviation fuels and new propulsion technologies for change to take hold. Engineering boffins are on the case.
Airports are not much different but they have less room for manoeuvre. Their business model is more rigid, and many are saddled with new debt to pay off. Most have frozen or cancelled development plans and new capacity can wait, for now.

There is a desire for reinvention though. The reform of airport charges is a key area as Luis Felipe de Oliveira, director general of ACI World, explained to delegates at the joint Airline Ground Services Summit and Airport Services Association Leadership Forum held in Athens during September..
For de Oliveira, the current regulatory framework is too rigid and needs to be replaced with a more commercial approach that includes risk sharing between airports and airlines. “We need to rethink airport charges,” he said. “In good times the charges go down, in bad times charges go up.” This is counter-productive, he argues.
Money will also be a topic of conversation at the upcoming Routes World event in Las Vegas, but Airlines will expect airports and tourism bodies armed with talk of incentives and marketing support on offer rather than charges reform.

After a hell of a summer, marked by resurgent passenger numbers on the one hand, and horrific operational disruption for many on the other, delegates in Athens wondered what the winter months will bring and about the prospects for 2023. Keynote speaker, Mehmet Nane, chairman of Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines, is pessimistic because the pent-up demand seen in 2022 will have dissipated by next year. “I have serious doubts about 2023 being a year of continuing recovery. The footsteps of recession are coming, starting in China.”

For the ground services industry, the gathering in Athens highlighted an industry struggling to deliver a quality service, let alone make money. Most players have been in crisis mode all year and business will remain acutely difficult for months to come. Experienced staff have left the industry in droves, and nobody knows how to replace them.
The last word goes to Aviapartner managing director Richard Prince, speaking at the CEO panel in Athens: “We need to restore a level of pride and respect to our industry. This means turning a transaction at an airport today into a service. If we don’t, lowcost wins and we become a transaction industry. We’ve got to bring back that sense of service.”

The post Autumn 2022 appeared first on Airline Routes & Ground Services.

When you were a kid did you ever do the windmill run down a steep hill? The one where you ran as fast as you could, your arms flailing in a fast rotation, more out of control than in control. Sometimes a face plant was the inevitable outcome. Then tears. Or a bruised ego.
In some parts of the globe this could be a metaphor for the air transport industry. The dash of travellers back to airports and flights is astonishing. Aircraft are returning to the air as fast as they can. Destinations are popping back up on network maps like mushrooms after a night in the hothouse.

However, the rush to capture this business has brought the ‘windmill run’ effect. Some cannot cope, and the finger is being pointed at airlines, airports, handlers and security providers. Delays, cancellations and queuing horror stories in many European countries, the UK, USA and Australia, are rife; some airports – such as Amsterdam Schiphol – have imposed capacity caps to try and deal with the chaos. It is a sorry sight, and many who are returning to the air after foregoing travel during the pandemic are having a pitiful experience.

But the pain is not universal and should not be long-lived. IATA director general Willie Walsh told a press conference at the recent 78th IATA Annual General Meeting in Doha that he has taken 58 flights in the past few months and has not encountered a single delay because of airport-related troubles.

His view, also expressed at the IATA Ground Handling Conference in Paris in May, is that “these are temporary problems, and we can overcome them. They are faced every year as we come into the peak season… It is a much nicer challenge than when we were ramping down,” he said.

While that is true, there are concerns that recruitment and retention for the aviation services industry will be a systemic problem in the coming years. Several IGHC panels mused on how to attract younger generations to an industry that does not hold the appeal it once did. The answer is not clear.

Another worry is expressed in the title of a webinar held by financial giant HSBC recently: The crisis in ground handling – can aviation’s summer boom survive? Admittedly, this event was focused on Europe, but the sentiment applies globally. Nobody wants the recovery, and especially the first summer since 2019 where traffic is bountiful, to be derailed.
After taking flights and trains to Norway, Paris, Geneva, Malaga and Doha in recent weeks, I can report that traffic is flooding back. Some players are not coping very well; others have planned thoroughly. This summer will bring strong revenues in many markets. IATA is predicting that despite the headwinds of fuel price rises, climbing inflation and the war in Ukraine, the industry will reduce its forecast loss in 2022 and a return to profit is “on the horizon” in 2023.

Everybody is hoping that 2022 will be the year when recovery from the pandemic truly establishes itself. The signs are good when it comes to traffic. But can the industry avoid a face plant when it comes to managing this boom successfully? That is an open question.

The ARGS team will review the summer season at the Reunion event organised by EVA Media International. Taking place from 5-7 September in Athens, it will feature the Airline Ground Services Global Networking Summit 2022, held in association with the Airport Services Association. We look forward to seeing you there.

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