Besides Aviapartner & Flightcare, a 3th handler at BRU ?

[Av24.be]

New poll, hot in the news. Start voting and discussing now

[HighInTheSky]

Actually, I don't see why anybody is against the 3th handler...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the 3th handler will come, whatever Flightcare or Aviapartner try (strikes, actions,...), and I also think that LH/SN have something up there sleeve...

After the strike of August 2008 it became clear that a 3th handler is needed. Pax, airliners and government were so angry that we need a 3th company to improve concurrence and efficiency...

I'm sure someone will flame me

[Sabena320]

I'm in favour of a 3th handler. In that way the current handlers hopefully will deliver a better service to their clients, as this is not the case at the moment. Especially Flightcare doesn't seems to care much about SN, which is their biggest client.

[SN_fan]

An irrelevant reason why a third handler would be nice:
The tarmac could become more colorful
Flightcare => Flashy Yellow
Aviapartner => Flashy Orange
New handler => Flashy green or Flashy blue

[airbuske]

I know that SN would like to do the (passenger)handling for 2 middle carriers.
For the moment the ground operations department cost only money.

[cnc]

handling by sn/lh would make perfect sense. they could handle all star alliance flights.
on the other hand i think this would mean the end for flightcare belgium

[Conti764]

With SN growing again, it would be a smart move to insource as much as possible again, since it is likely LH and probably more (every?) Star Alliance airline at BRU would use this handling division. This way SN stays right on top of an important part of aviation (ground handling) and they do not depend on other companies.

I'd say, if the green light comes, go for it!

[tolipanebas]

A combined LH/SN bid to get that 3rd handling license at BRU would be fantastic and have great chances of success IMHO.They would be able to tap from the HUGE experience of both airlines in this field and immediately be the biggest handler at BRU thanks to the LH Group of Airlines (SN/LH/LX/OS/BD) and possibly other STAR alliance airlines.

It would be really great for the customers of all those STAR airlines, since Flightcare's service is really non-existant sometimes, whereas a handler run by SN/LH is likely going to go to far greater lenghts to get the flights out on time and in better comfort....

It also needn't cause a social bloodbath at Flightcare, provided they simply hire ex-Flightcare staff who have been working for SN for a long time already, which would make sense, given those people know the job and the airlines they'd be working with....
Working conditions at Flightcare are far from great (as well as the social climate there) so I am pretty sure many people wouldn't hesitate for a second if called by SN/LH to join them, provided they'd offer them the same or slightly more. It's how SN has been insourcing several tasks previously contracted to Flightcare in the past, the last one being crew bussing. And with GREAT success I must add as the ground bussing department is reportedly cheaper to run than the contract with Flightcare, whereas it nearly never happens a crew needs to wait for a bus, whereas in the past, it was a miracle if a Flightcare bus was waiting for the crew upon arrival and we alwways had to call them several times and waiting up to 10 minutes for them....

In fact, the only ones who'd need to wet their pants over such a plan, are the Spanish owners of Flightcare, because in case of a successful bid by SN/LH, they'd be guaranteed to loose 2/3rd of their turn-over! I'd say it's what you get when you're overly obsessed with maximizing short term profits while being extremely reluctant to invest in quality and customer satisfaction.

I don't think it will soon happen though, which is a shame... But one can always hope for it to become reality!

[Mavke]

Hi all,

At work ( DHL aviation ) we heard that dhl wil try to be the 3th, no idea if this is true, but the rumour is getting bigger and bigger each day ...

watch and see i would say ...


ken

[cnc]

i do wonder where they would house the 3th handler

[9vsmu]

Note that when a 3rd handler is allowed, the cake will have to be divided by 3 iso 2, because traffic is not increasing.

Also note that handling contracts are made for a longer term and that there is a 3 month notification, so of no use in case of a strike.

Additionally, both current handlers have agreed not to break each others strike.

As last, I would like to mention the social disaster that was created in AMS when an additional handler was allowed.

[flightlover]

My cent is: nobody realy cares about working conditions for the workers loading the plane, as long as the service seems to be ok they can be exploited. And when these workers try to explain to passengers during strikes about near fatalities or extreme flexibility, they just tell them p*** off, we don't want you to hold us from flying. way to go

[cnc]

compared to the old sabena/belgavia times they have to be a lot more flexible and work harder but still conditions are far from hard and payment is decent too compared to other sectors or even ground handling companies (swissport to name one)
in aviation you need to be flexible these days and most people refuse to accept this.

[anybody]

I'm in favour of a 3th handler. In that way the current handlers hopefully will deliver a better service to their clients, as this is not the case at the moment. Especially Flightcare doesn't seems to care much about SN, which is their biggest client.

Dear Sabena320,

I think you have to review your statement.
Maybe the last time you where at Bru apt was when you worked for SABENA.
Your statement is outdated and in the futher is it maybe better that you will inform yourself correctly before you make such statement.

Yours sincerely

anybody

[luchtzak]

Somebody has been fooling around with the poll ! I made it possible that non-members could vote too with this result. Disabled it again so now only members can vote once.

[Sabena320]

Dear Sabena320,

I think you have to review your statement.
Maybe the last time you where at Bru apt was when you worked for SABENA.
Your statement is outdated and in the futher is it maybe better that you will inform yourself correctly before you make such statement.

Yours sincerely

anybody

I never worked for Sabena and I'm talking about my own experiences in the last 2 years I worked for Flightcare. I don't know about other handling services, but for ex. the luggage handling serivce that Flightcare provides for SN is often bad in terms of delays, or not enough people to load or off-load the luggage, which causes delays. This can happen, but in my opinion it seems that for some reason SN is not flightcare's priority as other carriers are less affected by this.

[Acid-drop]

strange result on this poll, don't you think ?
We got bombed by the current handlers ?
It's hard to imagine for me that this is the result of only the usual forum members

[BrightCedars]

I'm all for it. Not only will it stear competition and frankly I don't understand why there should be a limit to this service market. I also think it could be useful for the home carrier to be able to run it's own ground handling and of course offer its services to visiting carriers.

[flightlover]

I'm all for it. Not only will it stear competition and frankly I don't understand why there should be a limit to this service market. I also think it could be useful for the home carrier to be able to run it's own ground handling and of course offer its services to visiting carriers.

As for the comment about the 'home carrier' SN, they can get hold of a self handling licence rigth now if they wish to. Aparently they don't.

As for the 3rth handler, wat would be best? having two handlers with full overhead costs (managment, materials and personel) or three? For me the wright awnser is 2. Why?

What gets cut first when rendability is going down due to less work per handler? The wages and number of workers, then the investments in materials and as a last resort the wages of managment. (1 and 2 can be interchangeble)

Less workers and less investments in materials will result in more accidents due to higher workloads and older materials. And that's about the last thing we need wright now. A few years ago a fellow worker could have lost his live due to poor maintenance, just a bit of luck he didn't. I bet you remember it all to well as the accident resulted in a strike.

Also there will be more disruptions of service due to high workload and the disgruntled workers. Because there will be at least one worker less (first cut made) every a/c rotation and the demanded flexibility will grow to much.

Think 3 will be better? Than have fun at the desk complaining about another missed flight due to strikes.

And last but not least 2 handlers at brussels is a number that does complie with EU regulations applying to BRU and way bigger airports than BRU also.

[cnc]

As for the comment about the 'home carrier' SN, they can get hold of a self handling licence rigth now if they wish to. Aparently they don't.

yes thats true but while i doubt it would be economical to handle only their own flights it would be if they did all the star alliance flights