RE Swissport Flybe Issues
It's not been the ideal start to the contract with Swissport for us.
There have been many problems as there normally is when a handling agent starts a new (big) contract, however i would expect these to have been ironed out by now, yet the service isn't really improving.
The main problems for us is the difference in quality of the Ops departments, we will admit we do change a/c frequently, however we have a high amount of a/c based at BHX and predominantly we operate very short routes, so there is the flexibility to do changes, sometimes unfortunately they are at short notice.
Aviance used to cope extremely well with changes, diverts, etc. They seemed to have the experience to deal with it. Seat plans were always correct, the loaders are excellent at loading our DH4's and the dispatcher's were very clued up. I appreciate with Swissport there are no dispatcher's, but there should have been more extensive training put in place. At the moment my main issue for concern is the Triple A procedures - the Team Leaders complete this (or are supposed to) but they knowledge is very limited, i suspect there are many DFT failures, also we were told the Team Leaders would be made competent and given an 'understanding' of how loadsheets work ( which loaders should have anyway), but as to LMC's, Stab trim settings etc they have no knowledge whatsoever.
Swissport I'm told are certainly not as good as Aviance when it comes to sending Ed's, Mvt's, Ldm's ontime with correct info, i think this is possibly to do with a far more advanced FIND system in use by Aviance and perhaps more experienced staff.
On the whole i think you pay for what you get, I would agree with posts on here that Aviance seem to be the more superior agent's.
On the plus side Swissport do seem to have more staff (perhaps too many) as when i go through the gate onboard, there is normally a good handful there, but if ask them questions none of them seem to know much.
Just to list a few other issues - if your connected to a jetway we have to wait for the 'Apron Supervisor' to tear up in a vehicle to take the bridge off, as the team leaders aren't trained.
If money wasn't always an issue in the aviation industry, I'd go back to Aviance tomorrow.
Just my thoughts on the subject.