Flight/Ground Ops, Crewing and DispatchA forum for the people who are engaged in operational control/flight dispatch/crewing and their colleagues airside in ramp dispatch, load control and ground handling, to discuss issues directly related to keeping their aircrew and aircraft operational.
Although I imagine the security pass would need clearing again. Just hold on for a few months and fire off your CV to the main companies and cross your fingers. As with all jobs, some relative experience is always better than none, and handling agents DEFINATELY hire staff with zero airside experience for the busy summer season.
But I think in the case of Gate Aviation, what they needed now was people with existing knowledge who they could just "refresh" in these weeks so that they had an experienced team in place for the start of the contract. I never saw the advert on the website, so can't really say, but I bet they were hoping to get ex-airport staff, or even to pinch staff from other companies, which is what it sounds like they got!
The management team behind Gate Aviation at Newcastle are apparently all experienced in handling, largely ex Swissport management I am told. So they should be more than capable of handling the situation.
What worries me, is that this company is going to go from a few Jetstreams with long turnarounds, to 30minute ones with Easy 737's and 319's, and I am told that the ground staff at Gate have had little to no practical experience with Easyjet and these larger aircraft, let alone dealing with a totally different type of passenger. I don't suppose there are many drunken hen parties and football fans flying out to Stavanger with Eastern.
Anyone care to make predictions as to how the handover is going to go?
I feel that there is going to be a few teething problems, but they have at least 70+ exp easyjet staff ( FOH Disp Ramp) so in theory is shouldnt be to bad once the "gate" staff are up to speed with EZY rules and regs then it should be painless, providing the kit gate have getten is up to scratch.
Gate have a good chance to make it here, get this right and there is no limits to what they can do, get it wrong and i feel they might be very red faced!!
There is no doubt that there will be teething problems but i think that will be expected by all concerned. With regards to staff. Current staff are by and large all ex swissport staff and will have dealt with all the easyjet type of passengers before. The FOH staff currently employed will most likely stay with eastern as they wear the Eastern Uniform. So the current staff who are all experienced plus the new Tupe staff should make for an experienced company all in all. As with regard to aircraft sizes the staff I Know who work for gate all have experience on 757/767 aircraft aswell as Just a Jetstream.
I know a few of there ops staff have lengthy previous service, and most of the others have a good 2-3 years experience add into that the tupe staff from servisair, some of which i know are good too and it looks ok. the existing ramp staff are good and again with the experience from airways that should be fine too.
you will always get teething problems, with any change of GHA and i am sure ezy are expecting this for the first few weeks.
As for 30 min turnarounds its becoming pretty much industry standard these days.
Any insiders have any information on the Gate Aviation jobs front? I take they have fully staffed themselves in preparation for the EZY contract takeover.
I spoke to the member of staff in charge of HR and she said that all of the candidates would recieve a reply either way. Just a bit confused. Hopefully the jobs fair in march (if they have one!) will open up a few more doors for us outsiders.
I'd be happy in airport security to be honest and maybe special assistance, something like that. I would of expected nothing more from the Handling Agents. Derichebourg might have something for us!
Well I have flown into and out of NCL with Easyjet since the takeover, and it seems like Gate have got their act together pretty damn quick. Their equipment looks to be in good order, and the flight left on time, despite the fact they were clearly training up a new dispatcher as well.
All in all looking very professional. But wow... the airstairs they are using are steep! Very very steep!
Gate have secured another significant NCL contract though it hasnt been made public except to the top levels. It is also apparently a "largely seasonal one". (any guesses?)
Also that a second wave of recruitment is in the pipeline for february. They arent going to advertise new jobs, but they will be looking for a few airside jobs fulltime, and the usual seasonal staff too. They will be going through those that applied when the jobs were advertised online first, so there is still hope for those that were ignored at the EZY contract.
Seems funny that Swissport are making cutbacks, while Servisair and gate are recruiting for the busy summer season. Is there a major contract(s) that are likely to change hands.
Swissport have/had some big seasonal contracts, Thomsonfly, Monarch, Eurocypria... does someone upstairs know one of them is going to Gate or Servisair?
I've sent all of my applications off for this summer and Servisair were the first to respond to me, thus interview tomorrow at 10! Just doing my Servisair research at the moment, need a list of airline customers at Newcastle though. Could anyone help me out on that one?
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