I believe it's the same in MAN, but as mentioned before it doesn't help when the aircraft arrive 25 mins early and then hold off stand as their ground crew are on a previous flight.

not everywhere... GHAs do carry out marshaling at a lot of Airports. Maybe not in the UK but elsewhere for sure....

In Defence of Menzies
 

I worked for Menzies in BNE in 2008-2009 after coming from a Turn Co-ordinator position with the national carrier in AKL.

The position was part time with split shifts but everyone is told that before being appointed.

I found the training was very good, our main carrier at that time was DJ, with TG, EY, BI, ON. We also took CX away from QF.

We had daily meetings with management at the end of each shift,
which were always very constructive and informative with periodical
1 on 1 meetings with management to assess our progress and to discuss
any issues which either, management or the staff member had.

So hat's off to Menzies, I consider, as an ex staff member they do a good job and have staff morale and staff wellbeing well in their minds. :ok:

In case anyone wonders, I missed the land of the long white cloud, the shaky isles and came back in 2009 and now work for the NZ Government in an industry that is far removed from the aviation industry.

From my understanding, it's just the UK arm of Menzies aviation that has allowed itself to deteriorate to an unsustainable position due in part to agreeing contracts that they are then unable to fulfill with any meaningful return. Both Menzies and Swissport have been slitting each others throats for the last 6 - 7 years, which, is great if you're an airline accountant, but has had the negative effect of poor yields within the business, extremely poor working conditions for the staff, A poor service to the customers and a damaged reputation.
There has recently been changes at the top within the U.K arm of Menzies aviation with some being shown the door for the above reasons. Will this mean changes to come ! - wait and see.

GHA do the marshalling at LTN

Your lucky you don't work for the Circus at dnata , as my poor old mate does ......morale sinking faster than the Belgrano ....

The Menzies Boys don't help themselves, today I watched a Menzies EBT pulling a dolly of bags and wondered which bag would fall off first. When the inevitable happened the Menzies EBT behind stopped to pick it up, unfortunately the one that was tailgating him was so close that he didn't. Fortunately the driver didn't meet the windscreen! Tearing around at way over the speed limit in the minibuses trying to catch up with aircraft waiting off stand is an accident waiting to happen as well. Just because you don't have enough staff to do the contracts isn't an excuse to do things that put you in danger!

Lots of incidents at BHX, offloading front hold bags causing a few near misses with aircraft tipping,the most recent was stopped by the rear pax door wedging against the aircraft steps.

trying to push an A320 with an Embraer towbar.

aircraft steps being continually left on empty stand even with motor still running on the self propelled type.

I appreciate its a big contract but inexperienced staff unfortunately will result in something more serious happening.

I too am an ex-Menzies employee. Having worked for them at 2 airports (EDI/LHR) I can say that when I was first with them it was much like you describe. Good training, good relationship between staff and management, always enough people to ensure customers received a good service. The staffing levels were perfect and there was hardly a time where I felt stressed or overworked.

This continued when I made the move to LHR and stayed with them but gradually as people naturally left or got promoted I soon realised no one was filling the gaps. More airlines came to MZ, but barely any new staff joined to meet demand, so the existing ones were simply spread out. Service level agreements went unmet and the staff were so overworked that sickness became much higher. The training steadily became weaker and weaker, people were shoved on to airline products with minimal, sometimes no training at all and left to deal with all sorts of problems. I still know a few people who are with Menzies and morale is still through the floor as next to nothing has been done to tackle these problems. This is not, I understand, unique to MZ at LHR, it seems to be the whole UK. It is a shadow of it's former self and honestly I'm so glad I got out when I did as it's just spiralled down further since I did.

I do hope the new senior management turn it around because it's getting to the stage where the damage being done could be irreversible for them. :(

Birmingham Airport family's THREE-HOUR wait for luggage - Birmingham Mail

:ok:

Flybe's waiting off stand, tug and bar left on shaded area at top of stand whilst Ryanair taxying to that particular stand.

just a normal day at BHX :(

oh and we wont mention the ramp guy who tweeted a reply to the above article on delayed bags which has since been printed by the local press resulting in his suspension.:ok:

Morale down

docking people for being 3 mins late, but expected to stay if flights late.

I don't think the morale is high at any of the HA's at the moment! :uhoh:

New rumour gaining momentum at BHX is that ASIG coming in to run the Flybe contract , seems a bit early for the contract to be awarded as the present contract expires in March 2015.
anyone else heard anything ?

I heard the same thing for EDI just a few days ago

I very much doubt there is any substance to the rumour at BHX as the contract won't be awarded until December for a March start.

Anyone know if Menzies have signed with Monarch for MAN & LGW?

Airline Services at LGW

Menzies MAN turned down TCX & MON due to them wanting this that and the other but not wanting to pay for it. MON is still up in the air but looking like they are going back to swissport.

Announcement due at BHX within next 2 weeks, looks certain that Menzies have lost the Flybe contract, and with the future of ZB uncertain, it just shows how quickly things change in aviation, at the start of this summer menzies had the 2 largest contracts at BHX, but lack of trained personnel has let them down.