Job Cuts at Servisair over Lost Ryanair Contract
 

Just heard that Servisair has lost Ryanair contract out of Stn and lots of jobs to go.Biggest sympathies to all that will lose their jobs from someone who lost theirs before Xmas.And even bigger sympathies to all at Groundstar who have picked up the contract!!!I can only presume they quoted a lower bottom line to get the work, and when that price is halved to fit their current business plan, Groundstar will be paying them to do the work!!

Oh dear...

It won't be long before Ryanair cut down their costs even more by getting the pax to load their own baggage into the holds (a la Aeroflot) and "pushback" using the reversers.

M O'L's appearance on BBC's watchdog last week didn't seem to go very well. Stranded pax and all that... . .Plus, of the massive profits he kept going on about, most of it is owed to FLS for maintenance.

As much as I feel for the individuals affected by the latest Ryanair saga - I can see where this has come from.

I often take FR flights from STN, and it has to be said that I have never seen a servisair employee that understood the phrase "customer care".

Every time I board an FR aircraft at STN the servisair representatives arrive at the gate, on or about 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time. (When this happens passengers become distressed, certain that they are at the wrong gate). Frequently there will only be one gate agent, more often than not that gate agent is rude and unfriendly, and gives no information whatsoever about why the aircraft is late... again...

On the other hand, I also use Go quite often from STN, and the groundstar agents are always at the gate before the passengers are, are usually bright and friendly, and give a far more professional appearence. (Is it a coincidence that Go allow their groundstar reps to wear Go uniforms, whereas FR don't allow their servisair reps to wear FR uniforms!)

Now that Ryanair have got rid of a very bad public face of their company, all they need to do is start allocating seat numbers at check-in, and hey presto, boarding an FR flight will be as easy as boarding a Go flight!

Again, you get what you pay for.

Yes Copenhagen I agree. But it is not difficult to supply a pax with a seat number. The only reason they don't is because they will not pay for loadsheets to be done on computers. Just because a passenger pays peanuts for a ticket does not mean that they expect to be treated like crap. I have heard 'you get what you pay for' too many times, to justify the treatment of pax. Listen to what the above gentlemen is saying. The gate staff even though they do not work for the airline are the first port of call. Go is also low cost, though if I am reading his point correctly, the service is much more pleasent. This says a lot. Pax don't really always remember good things about a flight. But they will always remember the bad.

[ 22 January 2002: Message edited by: Tower ]</p>

Fast Jet Wannabe:

The reason there is only ever one gate agent at the gate is most likely because Ryanair only pay for one Servisair Passenger Handeling Agent. It is the same at Manchester. No doubt ground star can spare more staff because they have nothing else to do.

The agents can often not give information on delays because Ryanair very rarely give Servisair the information. It is not unknown for FR flights to arrive at the gate without so much as a word from their Ops. Very often we have to get inbound details from the crew and the aircaft registration from the side of the fueslage when it arrives on stand!

I have no doubt that Servisair agents would wear FR uniforms *IF* FR paid for them. Servisair do this for Airtours, JMC, Britannia and SIA and used to for Sabena, Swissair etc.

As has been said before, Ryanair get what they pay for. Which isn't much.

About time there was some serious competition for Servisair - they are a pile of s**t!! They always seem disorganised and unprofessional and have to consult their supervisor before giving you an answer whenever you ask them something.

As far as open seating is concerned, it is done to speed up the boarding process. If you notice, whenever an FR flight is boarding there are no pax hanging around, they get on board as fast as they possibly can, minimising time on the ground. It has nothing to do with providing crap service but simply a method of stopping the competition of who's last to board a flight.

Thank Goodness that we don't have to face Servisair anymore.

At LTN Ryanair only pay for one passenger agent to be posted on the gate on the understanding that one of the cabin crew goes inside to help out. Could it be the same at STN

The main story in our local rag last Sunday concerned a disabled lady who spent 6 hours on board a Ryanair aircraft from Italy to Stansted. The aircraft left late and after landing she had to wait 2 hours on board because Ryanair had cancelled a contract with a contractor 2 days before and there was no one trained to get her off the aircraft. Eventually she was man handled off the aircraft by members of the family. A few days later she died and the family are blaming Ryanair. <img src="mad.gif" border="0"> <img src="mad.gif" border="0"> <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

I remember arriving at 17.55 hrs (or was it 18.55) and just missing a flight from BRS to DUB .... Servisair was handling Aer Lingus at the time(1995) and so asked them for a new connection ..... was told all servisair staff were going home and I would have to call Aer lingus at a number which they kindly gave me ...... it turned out to be a Dublin number and I very quickly found it was going to cost me a bundle in phone charges so I asked the Aer Lingus guy to call me back at the BRS payphone which he immediately agreed to do ..... no joy - the pay phone would not accept incoming calls ..... so I ended up paying about a fiver in phone charges to replace my flight to DUB ...... will I remember Servisair? - of course - for ever

"About time there was some serious competition for Servisair - they are a pile of s**t!!"

Delete Servisair and insert RYANAIR.

Long live Easyjet, GO, Buzz and bmibaby <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Dont be too hard on Servisair, there are much worse handling agents out there! Try Aer lingus in Dublin, they are what we call a pile of c***.

If Servisair are that rubbish, then why are some of the worlds best known airlines handled by them? Singapore, American, Britannia, Continental to name but a few!!!!!! <img src="mad.gif" border="0"> <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

More gutter style management by that pillar of ethical business princples - yours truley MOL.

Two hopper loads of FISH & FOWL Manure Jeeves and then I'll no doubt be back for a load of Paraquat.

<img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Your lives are obviously not worth living if you can't give FR a good slagging off, that's how pathetic most of you are.

Having the women dead is no doubt very sad but in no way can FR be blamed for this. Most airlines are handled by Servisair because there is simply no choice. It is FR policy everywhere to only have 1 gate agent with a member of the cabin crew doing the boarding.. .I know that it may be a bit hard on Servisair but why on earth are they unable to recruit and retain good staff??

The main reason handling agents are rude and offensive to customers is because they have been on shift for 16 hours. This is the only way they can earn a decent living (thru overtime). Cheap airlines mean poor pay for the workers, who are never trained correctly and always on temp/seasonal contracts.. .I suppose this is what they call "a good deal" for the customer?. .May be next time the flying greek and Irishmen are on Watchdog they could discuss the pay of their staff and subcontractors.. .Then the Great British public will realise who's taking the **** out of who. <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

sorry, I forgot to mention the other **** takers:. .BMI,. .BEA,. .and of course depending on what contract you possess, BA <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

The handling agent I work for know Servisair as Circusair. Whatever happened to them at LTN? We handled all their flights the past year or 2. Apparently ex employees put it down to bad management.

Lee <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

"I know that it may be a bit hard on Servisair but why on earth are they unable to recruit and retain good staff??"

In two words: Bad Management

Staff are expected to do a huge amount of work for very little pay and no thanks from the managers, airlines or passengers.

Delays are covered up by managers (Who, with occasional exception, have no idea what they are doing) so bad performance does not reflect on them. No one is willing to accept responsibilty and instead of tackling the problem head on, a person is thrown at it, equiped only with a mobile phone, a tabard which invariably has liasion somewhere in the title made up for them and not one jot of help or backup from the management.

The Whole operation revolves around the blame culture. Make a mistake and your are writing reports left right and centre, and even when it is clearly not that member of staffs fault, they are still dragged infront of the powers that be for a good rodgering. And not forgetting all the 'get out clauses' that the management introduce to cover their own backs.

Staff are expected to stand and take whatever passengers, Airline Reps, Flight deck and cabin crew can throw at them for virtually nothing and when you have seen some of the abuse that is flung around (Mostly by pilots and cabin crew I have to say) it is a wonder that most staff last longer than a few days, indeed i bet the majority don't. I believe that at MAN last summer, around 20 temp dispatchers left the company before they had even seen an aeroplane. I dread to think what the Passenger Handling staff turnover is like, especially with their NAZI style rules and regulations.

So, now you have an insight into how Servisair works

BUT,

Despite all the above, there are staff at Servisair who ARE professional. Who WILL go out of their way to help people and who DO care about doing a good job. Please do not paint all Servisair's staff with the same colour.

Alot of it's problems stem from the airlines wanting to have first class handling but at the same time wanting to pay in chocolate money, and I'm afraid that Ryanair fall squarely into this catergory. (They even shut down their engines before turning onto stand and coasting to a stop to save fuel!)

[ 22 January 2002: Message edited by: SZD ]

[ 22 January 2002: Message edited by: SZD ]</p>

A couple of observations on previous postings.

The Flying Irishman says that Ryanair have to use Servisair as there is rarely any other Handling Agent to use. So why did Ryanair switch to Servisair from Reeds (or was it still Monarch?) at Luton several years ago as it was Ryanair's policy to use Servisair where ever possible?

Got the Fokker in Sight - whilst I appreciate that your employers are carrying out some of Servisair's functions at Luton - e.g. Servisair don't do any tugging - I don't think it is correct to say that you handle all their flights! I know of several people who work for Servisair at Luton.

By the way .... why do your tug drivers either go too fast or very slow????

:) :) :)

SZD: Couldn't agree with you more. As for people giving Servisair a good hiding and boasting of Groundstar's brilliance, which planet are you all on? Groundstar recently took over the KLM Uk contract at NCL and what a mess they have made of it so far. KLM only transferred for financial reasons; Servisair at NCL had received KLM's station of the month three times in the previous year before the contract was changed, and KLM are now getting what they pay for. Every time Groundstar delay a flight, KLM don't pay for the turn-round, so they haven't paid for any flights yet. Groundstar staff "didn't know" that the a/c had it's own airstairs, so they positioned their stairs by the a/c only for the cabin crew to open the a/c door which landed on the top of the stairs! The other day Groundstar overloaded the a/c and attempted to offload the last two passengers who boarded, the pilot told them this wasn't an option as they were both Royal Wing pax so Groundstar called the POLICE out to deal with the pilot because they didn't know how to solve the problem!!!!!! And Groundstar are PROFESSIONAL? I think not. The problem with Servisair lies with the management in that they do not implement a standard of service throughout their stations - everywhere is different. But just because the Stansted lot lose a contract doesn't mean that all Servisair stations offer a poor service. At NCL the Servisair staff turn GO a/c round in 16 minutes and even when there's only two or three staff in operations they still don't end up with many handling delays. So if Ryanair aren't happy with their lot at STN, I suggest you move to NCL and give Servisair the contract. They'll show you how it's done! :)

Oh and by the way, the reason why Servisair can't recruit and retain good staff? Because the pay is poxy, it's that simple! :)

Agreed re retention. The pay and conditions for Servisair staff are so poor that they only stay long enough to get sufficient experience to go elsewhere.

Also agreed that one cannot tar all Servisair stations with the same brush, but STN were wholly apalling when I had dealings with them when working for two different companies out of STN. Not surprised Ryanair went elsewhere.

Groundstar at MAN are also apalling. They rarely answer the telephone (in my experience), they don't meet flights (again only in my experience, anyone wants to contradict me I would be pleased). When they learned the plane was late and pax may need transport arranging or it was discovered there were pax with missing baggage, G/star were conspicuous by their abscence and no amount of telephone calls to their office made a difference because there was no-one to answer,or who would answer.

Doc C.

As Clematis says, being appointed by Ryanair will cost Groundstar a fortune in penalty payments - I'm even willing to bet that it will sink them before the year's out.

When GO transferred from Servisair to Groundstar over a year ago the difference was enormous....Groundstar were a helluva lot worse, and nothing much has changed.

Morale at STN is at rock-bottom, and a recent decision by Groundstar to make 20 staff redundant was reversed after pressure from GO management - but it's the same old story: big-shot airline managers congratulating themselves on their ruthless negotiating skills, contractors willing to bid below cost just to get the business, and everybody losing in the end, one way or another.

I suppose most of you are right as it is all too easy to make assumptions. I don't know what Servisair are like at NCL but they are bloody awful at STN.

"Groundstar at MAN are also apalling. They rarely answer the telephone (in my experience), they don't meet flights (again only in my experience, anyone wants to contradict me I would be pleased)"

This is very true. Indeed when they first moved to MAN and gained the Air Scandic contract, a terminal one operation, Servisair had to attach any Airbridges because Groundstar 'overlooked' the fact the staff had to be trained not just on T2 but also on T1!

I think their time at MAN may nearly be up.

If this manning level at the gate is the norm, exactly what secondary security do FR employ upon boarding ???

Magplug,

What secondary security do other airlines provide at the gate? No more than FR!!

Pax ops not only problem for Servisair at STN. .BA World Cargo / Atlas reviewing contract for Cargo handling on 744's. .Hope this means no more job losses, we've seen enough already. .Including Atlas Air's own operation at STN who have laid off 2 Operations staff this week.

Servisair are not that bad, one thing I would like to know is how groundstar STN are going to get all the pushback tugs and extra steps etc to handle ryanair because there is never enough rear steps for Go-flights, but even then I am not compling about groundstar at stn because I use them everyday I find them to be the one of the most best handling agents I have come across. But like some-one say's further up the page you can not beat servisair in the TOON (Newcastle to others).

I agree Groundstar do an excellent job under the contract agreements.

I would like to see another airline or handling agent do 40+ turn arounds in a day with only 3 dispatchers and 4 teams of ramp bods. I know its Groundstars fault that they signed the contract, but go will have to put up with fiddling of delay codes back off the staff who do a fantastic job. Shame about the duty managers though!!!!!!

Bring on Ryanair I say...

Sorry pressed the wrong button. Yes seems as if theres alot of bitter and twisted people on here slagging off both Servisair and Groundstar, and I bet most of these people who are slagging the companies off are either: Airline ops, Pilots or former employees who got the sack for what ever reason. Let me tell you that there are quite a few folk who work within these companies who bend over backwards to help out in anyway possible, and what thanks do they get? NONE AT ALL!!!!!!!, even if a pilot has a crap and you wipe thier arse for them, 'thank you' doesnt even exist in thier vocabulary. So then for those days where an airline has a 100% 'on-time' day, where are all the big smiles and the big heads? well it most certaintly isnt with the dispatchers or ramp guys who have worked their b******s off to acheive this. Good luck to Groundstar with the Ryanair contract and I hope they do well, and deepest sympathy for those people in Servisair who have unfortunatly lost their jobs. And lets not forget that everyone is not perfect!!!!! <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Congratulations to Servisair on regaining the Air 2000 contract at MAN after one year with G/Star.. .Question for the flying irishman...what makes you Servisair expert...??....the Servisair product is just FINE!!.....Why do u think AIR 2000 have returned to Servisair??

Ok then lets stop all this bitching about Servisair. Staff do their best and as Ops1 has mentioned I know that Servisair in NCL are one of the best. Having worked for Servisair a few years back I know what conditions are like.

Quoted from SZD,

"Staff are expected to do huge amounts of work for very little pay, no thanks from managers, airlines or passengers."

This is very true. Sometimes I think managers forget where they started off, and what kind of s*** the agents at the bottom of the ladder face. I am the first to admit that pay them more money, give them a comprehensive training package and airlines would be a alot happier and more willing to give them the contract. But in such economic times as these, we airlines have to put up with it, if we are not willing to pay the extra.

As demonstrated Air 2000 regretted leaving Servisair in MAN, to go to Groundstar. This again is echoed at NCL, where Groundstar are struggling with KLM uk. Again I think Servisair will find an old friend come knocking on the door again, when the 3 months probation runs out.. .Also Britannia may be knocking on the door too!!! to get away from Groundstar.

Groundstar staff are exactly the same as Servisair's. Yes there are good staff who do give a damn, but provide more money, more thanks, better career prospects and all staff might care and stay, and as they say experienced staff are the most valued!

One final point, if Servisair are sooo bad, then name a few other handling agents who can turn around a 737 with two full loads of passengers and baggage, not to mention fuel and basic catering in under 16 minutes, cause I can't out of all the UK handling agents.

And it doesn't hurt for us flight and cabin crew to say please and thank you to the hard working agents, who help get our flights sorted. Tell them when they have done well, IT HELPS!!!!! . . <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="cool.gif" border="0"> :)

THEFLYINGPADDY

You obiously don't fly for/with any major airlines, as most of these are handled by the worlds greatest handling company Servisair.

The main problem with a company like Servisair handling the likes of FR is the reduction in their high standards to a level of service that FR affords its pax (classic example is the treatment of the old lady left on an a/c for two hours in STN) <img src="eek.gif" border="0">

Here Here.

I think that the flying irishman is having some kind of relationship with MOL.

Beware Mike if he sits down fast he will break your nose.

<img src="tongue.gif" border="0"> <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

[ 28 January 2002: Message edited by: andy32 ]</p>

Toontartcart. .About time someone appreciated the work that ground handlers do. The reason pay is not so good is purly that airlines don't want to pay the money for us to do the job that you all expect. Some airlines employee their own ground staff who stand around and do sod all except run away when there is a problem. If only airlines stood back, looked at the service that they get and then look at the invoices received, they will see, in most cases, that they get a dam good service and that all staff bend over backward to help. If only this could be said by some of the airline staff themselves.. .Servisair and GlobeGround are now working together to make things better. Is ground handling alliances the way to go? It seems to be working for the airlines!

Good luck Groundstar at STN....you will need it!. . <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Forgive me if I am wrong, but is the case of the lady being left on the aircraft because the wheelchair company at STN went bust? Not because of any ending of contracts. Please shed more light...

According to our local rag, which I must say often gets the story wrong Ryanair ended the contract 2 days earlier. The lady went on to die a few days later after experiencing Ryanair customer care. <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

Please let that not be a sick joke. If it is true, then it is terrible shame.

I’m afraid this was no joke. She was on the aircraft 6 hours as the flight was delayed after boarding. After waiting 2 hours her family carried her off the aircraft. A few days later she was dead. Could this be Ryanair’s first fatality? <img src="mad.gif" border="0">