Swissport BHX -what's gone wrong?

[tom775257]

Hi,

I am interested in what is happening from your side, as users of your services we are seeing an increasingly poor service. Incidents in the last week have included: Having to persuade the airport authorities to marshal our aircraft onto stand after standing engines running for 10 minutes blocking a taxi way, then waiting about 25 minutes on stand for some steps. Also having to flag down an airport coach to take the crew from a remote stand back to the terminal because Swissport didn't turn up with the minibus. Various loadsheet, tug availability or pushback crew issues etc.etc.

I think the most disappointing aspect of the service has been the constant incorrect information fed to us over 122.050 about estimated times. If we are told 'a tug will be with you within the next 2 minutes' we plan accordingly. Please we would prefer the correct information than sugar coated information. If we can't have a tug for 15 minutes, please tell us. Also where is the management in all of this? When we complain, every time the answer is along the lines of: 'Sorry mate, nothing to do with me, no point complaining to me, I just do xxxxxxx.' Well who do we complain to (apart from our ops department - who I think have received a journey report about Swissport each of the last 3 flights I have operated).

I suspect you guys are understaffed and overworked, because you look shattered! Either way, I would like your side of the story. Nothing personal against you all; just against the service the company is providing.

Cheers.

[PRLB]

The rot set in with the airlines in T1 when we were all moved over to T2 because they thought it would make sense for us to do it save money. When we were split into 2 it worked T2 staff did flybe and T1 staff did the airlines in T1 it worked end of story. Now we are all togehter in T2 its a bloody shambles I have lost count the amount of times I am waitng on stand for the a/c to arrive with no ramp team and no chocks or GPU for when the plane arrives. Most times having to chock and power the a/c myself and also marshalling it onto stand something which I am not trained to do, But do just to get the passengers off and the crew. When I am shift most days have to do 2 a/c at the same time is this really service the airlines expect i think not!!!.

The answer is we should never have been put back into 1 operation oh and another thing we should never have taken the contract in T2 either thats one of the main problems, and having despatchers with more experience then some mangement doesnt help either does it.

[tom775257]

PRLB: Thanks for the frank response.

So it sounds like an issue mainly caused by poor management of the operation. The sad thing is I guess with handling companies trying to undercut each other, operations are always going to be stretched. I guess the pressure on the management must come from the airlines themselves. Ill conceived management cost saving exercise like the T2 combo don't help... With on time performance a real big issue these days, perhaps airlines will decide to spend that little bit more to give the handling agents some more cash to get enough staff, enough training, enough equipment; and some good managers - all leading to a better experience for the pax - those that indirectly and directly pay all our wages.

As much as Captains like to say to passengers 'its not our fault, it is Swissport' as a passenger I wouldn't differentiate between the airline and the handling agent.

PRLB while I admire you for going the extra mile trying to help out with everything, with regards to marshaling when no one trained is around (and of course would very much appreciate it on the flight deck), if something went wrong (externally) and you weren't meant to be I bet Swissport would put your neck on the line. Look after number one! Cheers for the hard work.

Best regards,
Tom.

[fmgc]

So are the airlines shouting loud at Swissport about this?

I have ad similar problems myself at BHX, it is a shambles, the guys on the ground are great but I think totally under resourced.

I can't see that my airline will be renewing the contract with them, which surely will put into jeopardy the Swissport contract at all the other bases that we use them.

[OPS1978]

I totally agree with what everyone has said on here it is shocking the service the airlines in T1 are getting from swissport well after dealing with you all for the last 8 yrs its time for me to pack my suitcase and head of to the sun going DCT TO PHA VOR!!!

[tom775257]

OPS1978: Thought you had gone already, what you waiting for ;)

Well it was a pleasure working with you, with two different airlines. Best of luck mate, enjoy the sun (and the lady friend!).

You are in an ideal position to suggest what can be done to improve the situation - you have complete knowledge of the situation and no worries about loosing a job :E. What needs to be done to improve matters?

Cheers.

[merlinxx]

What all management have to realise is that SEVICE DELIVERY is the prime
reason for any service organization. I started on the handling side then went into the air carriers side. I set up and audited SERVICE DELIVERY companies. Price is important, but and this is the crux, the pax/cargo suffer the end result of under resourced, under trained, but dedicated enthusiastic staff.

Good Management with hands on experience is the key, if the boss can't run the honey cart as well as the budget, mentor and train staff then he/she should be in the honey cart:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

[Trash_Hauler]

I work for a handling agent myself in Ops/Dispatch... The problem is that Handling agents all undercut each other because the customer airlines expect us to. You then get into situations that only allow for minimal staffing and minimal inventory of equipment. Somebody goes sick or quits, there is nobody to replace them. Equipment breaks? There is no back up. Airlines off schedule (either late OR early)? Well, there is just enough staff and equipment to deal with what is already on the deck, therefore off schedule stuff waits. Gone are the days of being able to kick tail and try to recover the schedule. It certainly is not right but that's just the way things are. The staff on the ground are constantly being **** upon by management that is both incompetent and doesn't give a crap about anyone but themselves. Attitudes go to **** and contracts are lost causing job losses and a ton of animosity. It is a vicious circle and unfortunately the same managers that keep screwing things up just get recycled around. Something fundamental needs to change within the industry. Handling agents need to start charging what the job COSTS rather than what the customer airlines want to pay. Accordingly, they need to then take the blame when it all goes wrong. They need to properly staff and manage both people and equipment. They need to look after their staff as well as contrary to popular belief, we are not as replaceable as many think. It takes a certain type of individual to work on the ground. This is not Tesco! Peoples LIVES depend on how well we do our jobs! Customer airlines need to work more closely WITH the handling agents and not AGAINST them. Handling agents need to employ more qualified people and pay them a decent wage to hang onto them. Operations and dispatch need to be a licensed position like it is in the USA and those guys need to be renumerated accordingly to reflect the responsibility of the job. So the question here is where does the money come from? I will tell you where... The people who place their bottoms in seats. Flying to Spain should NOT be as cheap (or cheaper in many cases) as getting a train from Manchester to London. It is totally unrealistic expectations. The travelling public has had it far too cheap for far too long. The costs involved in this industry need to be recouped and it is not too unrealistic to expect the customer to pay for those costs. If the wholesale price of lettuce goes up, Tesco charges more for lettuce so why is it not the same in the Airline industry?

[call100]

Trash_Hauler
Hit the nail on the head. The blame actually lies fairly and squarely with the Airline Companies. They are the ones demanding cheaper and cheaper handling. You cannot even blame the HA companies for creaming huge profits at the expense of personnel. Some contracts actually cost the HA's to operate...(Where is the sense in that???)
All of the HA staff are under the cosh. Swissport seem to be suffering the most.
The lads on the ground do there best and do it well. However, you can only do so much.
I believe that there is a safety issue here...Accidents are waiting to happen. Tired, stressed staff are going to be prime for it.
Some sanity has to come back into the aviation world. The old adage of 'You get what you pay for' has never been more apt.

[legalize]

I work with all the HA on a daily basis. I must admit i have a soft spot for Swissport as I have known a lot of there staff for a number of years now. I agree with a lot the points mentioned on here and im sure even swissport management do. However it i snot entirely fair to blame management all the time. Sometimes the staff have to take a deep hard look at themselves as well and see what they can do to improve the situation.
Only a few days ago I was speaking to a member of the HR dept at swissport and she mentioned a few of the key problems which sum up this thread. Some of the problems are :

1 - Team leaders on the ramp who cannot pushback, headset, marshall or even drive!! This I put down to management.

2- In the ops dept there are staff who work 3 months in the year and take the remainder of the year of sick. This also happens in ramp and pax.

3- Also in ops there are disptachers/load controllers who can not even do airbridges, manual loadsheets and even 1 staff member who has been in the ops dept for 8 years and can not do a computerised loadsheet. And worse off all there are staff who can not even drive or Dispatch!! A dispatcher who can not dispatch, this is a problem!!. Is there training available? If not I blame the managemt and if there is i blame the staff for being lazy and not pushing themselves forward for training.

A lot of the poor performance is a diredct result of the above problems. I think if the management actually sit down with the workers(not department managers who normally dont have a clue) they could resolve these problems between them. I have seen a lot of good staff go and there experience not replaced by the person who takes over the role.

I really hope swissport turn things around and become the best again. Also dont think that the other handling agents dotn have problems. I deal with all of them and know that they hav eexactly the same problems. Only difference being they dont slag of theor own companies ON PPRUNE!!!

[merlinxx]

Hey folks when you post can you make sentences, paragraphs please apply:ugh::ok:

You folks are vitally important to all of us, if you cant' do your job, inform us of the short falls, in't just down to the crew !:ugh::{:ok:

[Trash_Hauler]

I have been in this industry for about 15 years. I have worked for both airlines directly and handling agents. It is not totally managements fault, I give you that, but mostly it is.

It is about high time that the people screwing things up are held to task. If that is the workers themselves, then great. Get rid of the dead wood. I would rather work in an ops department with a few dedicated, hard working professionals than a bunch of deadbeats that cant even bother to progress their careers forward. If you are not trained on something then you should be finding out WHY. If you can't be bothered however. don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya! Well trained professional staff also creates a better working environment between flight decks and ops/dispatch. If we know what the hell we are talking about and you on the flight deck have that trust in us everyone wins.

Now if the problem on the other hand is that training is not available due to staffing or budgetary issues (more often than not the case... it is not unheard of to forgo training simply because "we can't afford to spare the guys") then that is toatally at the fault of management. Begs the question of why there are not enough guys in the first place! Airlines pay a fair price. Handling agents charge a fair price, train your staff and pay them what they are worth... and things will be instantly better.

[groundhogbhx]

The problem with Swissports Ops Department training is that there aren't any trainers. This time last year there were four, two low experience and called on to do the training, one low experienced and not used, one very experienced who only found out about training courses when they were under way :ugh: The result was totally predictable and the seeds were sown. Since then, two left before they were pushed, one was shoved out the door and the other went travelling. There is a limit to what you can do to build the experience level of the staff, but that is very difficult if you are working flat out at the same time. Some people want to learn and will watch and ask questions, others just act like mushrooms.

I'm fortunate enough not to be in that position any more. I get rostered refresher courses and the chance to learn new things if I want to, all off line. Trainers should have lots of experience in the tasks they are teaching, how else are they going to effectively pass knowledge on, but they shouldn't be trying to do it whilst on line. The only way it can be properly done is in the training room away from any distraction.

[exaviation]

I have not been away from Swissport for that long, And I know what the real issues are..or what they used to be.
changing a tried and tested way of operation..
Get a contract for a large airline move to T2, take out of the mix the dispatcher. give that role to a team leader, T/L's job is to run the ramp side of things thats 1..

Plan the rosters and the allocation of staff around an airlines flights, it works on paper or a spread sheet....! if the airlines flights operate on time.

If the airline only manage to hit say 45% on time performance due to Tech or other problems, this means that the staff are caught between T1 flights and keeping the T2 airline happy.

When the T2 airline do not see that their poor reliability and the high standards that the airline set for their handling agent will impact on the H/A, and if they refuse to accept their connection between handling agent and passengers.
The passengers want to talk to to the airline not the handling agent, the passenger service staff are always in the line of fire when it should be the airline, defending their poor performance.

As above plan to the airlines flight time... Fantastic, if they do not run on time, the handling agent is screwed big time, and everyone suffers
How can anyone run a department or a station this way.
Bottom line is COST, offer the airline reduced cost they will jump at it, the operation director should have kept the dispatch role, keep the the price realistic, free the ramp staff to do their jobs it would be a lot better for the ramp staff, most of the good staff would then stay and have pride in their roles, they would not feel that they were streched to the limit and cut to the bone
At the end of the day, operate your airline closer to on time performance, your handling agent will be able to give you a much better service, standards will be much higher, staff, customers and passengers happy.

I know that the moving from T1 to the ''all in one pot'' in T2 way of staffing, was something that had to be done to keep the station going, after 50% of the T1 flights had gone, you can't plan for airlines being taken over and the lose of contracts,FCA, MYT, that was a big blow.

The T2 contract has been a bitter pill..survival or suicide? that's for others
to decide.
But as I have said before quality costs...and who wants to pay ?

The flight deck see staff that are under the cosh all of the time, yes some of them are now, part of the ''shug of the shoulder'' way of thinking and ''it aint' my fault mate'', I am sorry for that, as it's not how it's meant to be.

PRLB on your post....Please, Please, remember IF YOU ARE NOT TRAINED TO CARRY OUT A TASK DO NOT DO IT....even if you are trying to help. eg, NEVER marshall an aircraft if you are not trained, if anthing goes wrong, LIVE aircraft can kill, they can suck things up, blow them away,fuel leak, fire, what will you do,...? you can get the left and right mixed up when marshalling, or if you do not stop the aircraft in time to be on the mark, aircraft have and do hit airbridges and other hazards, think hard about the risk you are taking...! and the risk you a taking with other peoples lives, CAP 393 the air navigation order, the law is there for a reason, and you can be prosecuted under it if you endanger an aircraft or anyone on board.

The staff from all departments are stuck in the middle between
''this flight should'nt still be here now'' and ''my next flight is on stand'' which leads on to, why are there not enough trained staff.. ?
answer they have had enough and have left, or gone sick becuase of the working conditions. and the ramp training co-ord god bless him, is out on the ramp making up the numbers,not in the trianing room passing on his energy and skills to his team, and monitoring standards with audits.

Or have I been looking through rose tinted glasses all these years ?

[Black n Blacker]

exaviation you is on the money...........................:D:D:D:D

[groundhogbhx]

leagalize, who did you talk to from HR?? There never used to be any there and some of your info is wrong. The Despatcher who can't do computerised loadsheets now could on the previous system, I know because I taught him. The problem came about with the new system, Dplan. When it was introduced the training given to the trainers was appaling, basically this is all you need to get by so find out the rest for yourselves. This was when we had load controllers in T1 who did all the loadsheets and the despatchers didn't need to know how to work it. When the loadcontrollers went over to T2 there wasn't much time to teach anyone, especially if they were part time as they came in, did their allocated flights, and were gone before you knew it. Those that did pick it up were those that worked full time and had the chance to see the system being used during their down time and chose to sit with the load controller or supervisor and learn. The problem was known about but nothing was done dispite many requests, the reply being they can do their own loadsheets when they have been shown properly how to use the system. Unfortunately no time was ever allocated off line to show them and doing it on line was a nightmare, therefore partimers who were in no hurry to learn could easily slip through the net:(

[legalize]

grounddogbhx

I think you will find that you are wrong..Swissport do have a HR person as I speak with her on a daily basis. It's funny how you used to love the company and now slag them off just because they made you redundant because you were the least qualified/able out the 5 operation supervisors. :*:*:*

[groundhogbhx]

Who is the HR person then??? When I worked for them they all came from NCL, and then STN when the department moved. And where do you get your information about my abilities? Apart from never being trained to use PK (companies decision by the way) I knew how to use ALL the other systems used by the company and trained people to use most of them, unlike the 2 supervisors from T2 who kept their jobs (they only knew Shares L-DCS and Dplan and knew little or nothing of any of the night shift duties performed by the T1 staff).

The company used to be a great to work for, as I have stated many times. Since the lunatics took over the asylm the hard working staff had been made to suffer through lack of resources and poor management. My comments and feelings would still be the same if I was still employed by them, apart from I no longer have the headaches caused by hammering my head against the wall or desk in sheer frustration :ok:

Please feel free to PM me so we can continue this in private rather take up space on here.