It has been
very challenging in overall ground operation departments during the last few
months as air travel started to grow in numbers. We often find back-to-back
flights on the allocation and restless roster patterns which gives us a
terrible hard feeling that “enough is enough”. A scope of magnification through
the other ground operation departments who are involved in live operation can
find the same answer as they have the same opinion just as I mentioned earlier.
Once again, the scope of magnification further increased, we can find there are
other departments which indirectly involved in live operation can have the same
answer because of their workload.
This phenomenon is similar across the entire aviation industry as of now and it has been addressed during the 33rd IATA Ground Handling Conference (IGHC). The main reason behind this issue is the skilled labor shortage across every department. You probably know that the aviation industry got rid of 4.8 million direct aviation labor forces during the last year. Although the governments, airlines, airports and labor supply agencies are encouraged re-joining formalities for those who got laid-off, the majority of them declined the offer due to contract disagreements.
It
will be very challenging over the coming months as the air travel seems to be
increasing slightly higher than the forecast passenger loads. However, the
latest Covid19 variant “Omicron” can have an impact on the demands of air
travel whereas governments can urge their citizens and residents to have the
booster vaccine as the best resolution.
Looking
back at the main issue including me and my ground handing community around the
world face, some might think that it is the right time to move on whereas the
job opportunities are coming up post-pandemic. What I think is there can be
redesigned agreements especially on the pay scale and other benefits. So the
best option is to stick around until we pass through the last stretch of this
long tunnel.
Moreover,
The IATA’s Director of Ground Operations Monika Mejstrikova outlined three
priority solutions for the ongoing labor shortage which is…
1.
Governments/ Airlines should include ground handlers in wage
subsidy programs to retain skilled staff.
2.
Harmonize the training requirements to speed up training processes
such as competency-based training, assessments and online training formats
should be increased.
3. A
training passport should be developed that would mutually recognize skills
across ground handlers, airlines and/or airports to increase the efficiency of
staff utilization.
Finally,
Ground Operation is a key component in overall aviation business. The amount of
work pressure the ground operation employees are experiencing nowadays is
inconceivable. All these individual efforts collectively benefit not only to
the ground operation department, yet not only to the Airline or Airport Authority,
it is a part of the process to recover the Aviation industry after a great
fall. And it should not go unnoticed.
