Originally Posted by
Ph1l1pncl
As I’ve said previously, the problem that Newcastle has is that it now only has one ground handling agent, aside from fines from airlines/airport itself for breaking any SLA agreements Swissport has no other real reason to provide as quick and efficient service. And Swissport will want to keep their costs to a minimum, it’s not like they have the threat of loosing an airline contract to an alternative provider. It’s either accept Swissport and it’s fees and service levels, or self handle at the airport or potentially leave the market. I do think that Jet2 should self handle at Newcastle, that would take a large proportion in the summer off Swissport.
On a separate note, are any of the Jet2 New York shopping trips operating on the 330 this year, or just the 757?
EZY & BA handling contracts expire in the new year at newcastle so Swissport have every reason to provide a quick and efficient service. Jet2 pay pennies for handling at NCL, so at the minute it doesn't seem viable for them to then buy a lot of their own equipment. At the start of the summer they cut costs even more by running the APU's on first wave instead of having a GPU connected. In november and december jet2 will be getting a delivery of their own branded steps, which of course it has been said on this forum for some time.
Airline handling isn't a lucrative business, having 2 minutes to open a hold door, 2 minutes to open door 1 and up to 3 minutes to open door 2 on an easyjet isn't easy especially when you're supposed to wait 90 seconds for the aircraft to spool down. The dispatchers and ramp team are the same people who worked for aviator & some of which worked for north east aviation services. These people know how to do their jobs. Perhaps the issue lies with paying peanuts for tickets. Maybe if the people of the North East put their hands into their pockets and some more lucrative carriers came into the airport there wouldn't be such an issue with airline handling. It will never be perfect and I personally don't agree with swissport being the only handling agent at NCL, but there's nothing wrong with the service it provides. A lot of the time the 25 minute Easyjet turnaround is hampered by the airport not turning up with the services they say will provide, the morning NCL/PMI or sometimes NCL/ALC is preceded by the aircraft inbound from BFS, I'm not sure if it's been noticed but a domestic in and international out the inbound passengers have to be coached to a different gate.
The light should be shone on NIALs attitude to handling passengers and pax assistance as well as their shortcomings in that department but then what do I know.