March 2012

INSIDE THIS ISSUE... 6

Munich Airport tables its green charter

Exploring GSE, airfi eld equipment and infrastructure

16 Sliac ˇ Airport aims

high to meet increased traffic

ASA FINDS ITS VOICE

Airside International talks exclusively to Martin Meyer on the ASA’s impact since its launch in 2011

HISTORICALLY, handlers have been at the beck and call of their airline customers - which is not surprising, considering the fact that traditionally airlines owned the handlers. But today’s independent handler has a tough job, dealing with multiple airlines, each with its own processes, procedures and requirements. To complicate things further, aviation organisations such as IATA, ICAO and, on the cargo side, FIATA and the Global Shippers Forum all make demands on handlers who have all too frequently been left out of negotiations and discussions – until now. “Handlers need a voice,” emphasises Martin

Meyer, secretary-general and treasurer of the Airport Services Association, launched last year to represent handlers in the air transport industry. “We need a strong, well organised, professional trade association.”

Martin Meyer, Secretary-General and Treasurer of the Airport Services Association

The EU directive on ground handling led to the formation of the Independent Aviation Handlers Association, which quickly became the

“Handlers need a voice. We need a strong, well organised, professional trade

association”

International Aviation Handlers Association. But, says Meyer, by the time he joined the board as representative of his then employer, Swissport, IAHA had become a little stale. “It had no oomph and not much benefit for members.” Meyer’s long experience in aviation made him the ideal person to transform IAHA into a useful and influential organisation. Meyer joined Swiss Air as an aeronautical engineer in November 1981, moving into technical sales, promoting the company’s maintenance services, before landing up in ground operations, where he was head of ground handling contracts until Swiss Air collapsed in 2010.

“I then moved to Swissport, which started as a Swissair project,” Meyer explains. “But in 2010, Joseph In-Albon, former CEO of Swissport, started a new, small handling company, Airline Assistance Switzerland (AAS), in Zurich. I joined him as commercial director.”

When Meyer and his colleagues decided to re- structure IAHA, he persuaded AAS to allow him to work part-time, so he could devote time to AAS. “IAHA was an all-volunteer organisation,” he says. “Its members had their own companies to run. Because of this, decisions were not always implemented. The organisation needed a professional leader to dedicate time to both Continued on page 2

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