Originally Posted by
Ken Borough
A dedicated service provider such as Swissport can be more viable and flexible as it can obtain better utilisation and therefore productivity from its workforce. Their bag chuckers can go from one customer’s aircraft to another and then to another with little or no gaps. This is how costs are held down - you don’t requires as many people. On the other hand, if the same people worked for one carrier, they may well be idle for sometime between tasks, depending in that carrier's schedules.............!
It doesn't work; been there, seen that many times, (UK large and medium airports).
Outsourced handling companies give their staff very poor terms and conditions. Many are on zero hours contracts - they are only paid if they turn up to work. During busy times, after taxiing in, you sometimes have to wait ages even for steps, let alone getting your passenger's luggage unloaded. And if you need a wheelchair for one of your passengers, you will typically wait 40+ minutes. Been there, suffered that (too) many times.
Sometimes, there is nobody to even turn on the stand guidance, so you can't even turn onto your stand. At weekends, or when there is a significant sporting event on the telly, there is a mysteriously high sickness rate amongst the handling staff.
It's a crock of ****. You cannot reliably run an airline if you outsource your ground handling, because you lose control over your ground handling. Ditto engineering.
PS, the bosses who caused all this do not care a damn. They will make another million or so each and then move on to the next company.