52 THE 14TH
ANNUAL GHI CONFERENCE
GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2013
Milan, in style With over 620 attendees, the 2012 event had something for everyone, writes Alwyn Brice.
ith over 620 delegates in attendance in Milan, the 14th annual GHI conference was the biggest and most successful event to date. An exhibition hall, with information on everything from self check-in through ticketing solutions, GSE, baggage location applications and rostering systems, coupled with two days of papers, combined to whet the appetite of delegates. In addition to this were over 1,500 one-to-one meetings that had been organised, all of which were aimed at mitigating the impact of time spent out of the office for those attending. The fact that over 100 airlines joined their ground handling partners in Milan is testament to the importance of this annual event that now seems to be the established market place for the industry.
New to the Chair was Bob Gurr, of BidAir, and under his watchful eye the
conference unrolled smoothly. The first paper presented (by Marsha Ragusa, wearing her IGHC headgear) was simply that of a governance structure update, in which she underlined the longer term collective benefits that would accrue from IATA’s proposals for the handling industry. This was swiftly succeeded by Robin Cartwright and Eduardo Junco of KPMG, who gave a handling sector financial health check. According to the patient’s geographical location, his progress was mixed. The North American and Western European markets were still dominated by large alliances whilst handling markets were typically hotly contested and the omnipresent unions and regulatory issues made for a challenging environment. In Asia, the Middle East and Latin America there was a growing air of liberalisation but political factors were impeding progress and partnering
packages were frequently required. Interestingly, these latter were the regions expected to boost their RPK figures in the years leading up to 2032: Latin America by 6.6% and Asia by 6.4%, contrasting with Europe, which was calculated to swell by 4.1%.
Whilst noting that overall there has indeed been growth recorded amongst the handling fraternity, the speakers drew the audience’s attention to the fact that profitability was lower. There were several reasons attributed, including pricing pressures, cost of expansion and the fact that input costs were exerting a downward pressure. By 2020, in the pair’s estimation, the market will have noticeably split into two, with around 55-60% of airlines served by independent handlers. In the more immediate future, though, things looked positive, with growth expected in emerging markets
Simon Prudencio & Alondra Lazo Onell, LATAM AIRLINES GROUP; Osman Kinali, GOZEN AIR SERVICES
Jason Muscat, AIR MALTA; Lee Gainsbury, AIR MALTA; Peter Copley & Luis Barreira, ASIG
Alessandro Pastorelli, ATA ITALIA; Ruben Alejo, IBERIA AIRLINES; Erich Battagin, ATA ITALIA
Mikael Persson, SAS - SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES SYSTEM; Hassan Nashaat, INTERNATIONAL AVIATION BUSINESS
Ken Millar, Gary Cooley & Peter Rowe, AER LINGUS
John Zermas, SWISSPORT HELLAS SUD; Ari Kuutschin, FINNAIR; Charles Galloway, SWISSPORT INTERNATIONAL
Sathya Narayanan Dinakaran, BIRD GROUP - BWFS INDIA & GLOBEGROUND INDIA; Hans Bischof, BIRD WORLDWIDE FLIGHT SERVICES (INDIA); Justin Jaques, WORLDWIDE FLIGHT SERVICES
Saulius Batavicius, BALTIC GROUND SERVICES; John Fehrens, GERMANWINGS; Vitalis Dudys, BALTIC GROUND SERVICES
Benedetto Gallinaro, GLOBEGROUND ITALIA; Marilena Faccioni, FLIGHTCARE ITALIA/ GLOBEGROUND ITALIA; Andy Kynoch US AIRWAYS; Kurt Knaul, US AIRWAYS
Stefania Catania, SEA HANDLING; Rob Van Hijfte, AIR FRANCE-KLM; Maria Rosaria Pisano, SEA HANDLING; Michael Van Moorst, AIR FRANCE-KLM
Tony Goh, Wendy Loh & Sarita Rai, SATS; Barry Nassberg & Paul Mallard, WORLDWIDE FLIGHT SERVICES
Mohammed Zafar, Abdullatif Alsufayan, Moteb Saud Al-Zahrani & Ahmed Fallata, SAUDI GROUND SERVICES
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