Improved Operational and Workforce Efficiency With Next-Gen Ground Handling Technology

2022-11-18

Managing staff, equipment, and resources in an airport are challenging. They should be ready to meet service agreements and operational requirements regardless of delays or unpredictable difficult situations. However, it is not possible to afford overtime or extra pay under these circumstances. Therefore, managing limited assets is crucial for the maximum effectiveness of airport operations.

End-To-End Ground Handling Process Digitalization
TAV Technologies Ground Handling Suite (GHS) is a set of fully integrated products offering comprehensive and end-to-end ground handling solutions. It covers operational and business processes, from initial staff schedule preparations through real-time resource allocation, situation awareness, turnaround management, tactical allocations, and SLA monitoring to service recording and automated billing.

GHS is designed to save airport operators from manual work as much as possible, thus giving them more time to concentrate on their essential work. Designed to support all critical resource management processes of airports, it features two main modules to cover ground-based airport operations.

Modular, Scalable & Integrated Structure
The smart solution is modular and scalable, with modules available individually or as a fully integrated system. Regardless of the type and size of airports, it targets independent ground handlers, self-handling airlines, airports providing handling services, and any provider with flight-related processes. GHS is implemented in one of the five largest airports in Europe managing 1400 flights and 3500 resources per day. It is a web-based application, and its technology can constantly be updated with the latest releases.

The modules of GHS include:

Roster Management
Real-Time Airport Resource Management

1. Roster Management

GHS Rostering is the strategic module enabling the creation of a short-term shift plan by making a low-cost and balanced distribution according to the time constraints determined by the users and the use of the created plan in operations (GHS Real-time).

The system allows the creation of flight-dependent and flight-independent rules on an airport and unit basis following airport restrictions and airline SLAs. Using the created rules, a department-based workload can be made at 5-minute slots. Workloads can be observed based on their rule set and flight information. Peak cuts can be applied to the created workloads, and the workloads can be stored in the system.

Personnel time constraints and day-off choices can be defined flexibly in the system. Considering the workloads and personnel constraints, short-term shift plans can be created with minimum cost, maximum coverage, and balanced workloads assigned to the employee. The shift plans can be saved in the system and sent to the operation (GHS Real-time) module.

The actual data of active and quit personnel can be observed. Training, leave, manual day offs, and unavailability can be defined for the personnel from the system. Rostering can work in integration with third-party systems for personnel data and flight data.

2. Real-time Airport Resource Management

GHS Real-time is a mobile resource allocation system for real-time ground handling operations. From the minute an aircraft arrives to the moment it takes off, GHS Real-time will accompany it at every stage of a flight turnaround. The solution helps customers create, plan, allocate and track tasks. It continuously monitors the situations with an advanced and configurable Gantt chart and provides daily operational visibility by generating task, resource, and flight historical documents.

Its real-time automated scheduling function significantly reduces the number of operational errors. Intelligent rule-based conflict management can optimize airport operations to accommodate last-minute changes and resolve errors. Therefore, exceptional situations frequently encountered during the operations that require manual intervention in other applications can easily be defined and responded to automatically in GHS Real-time. The solution can provide notifications about required actions and flight changes. These functions improve operational profits, resource management, and communication among personnel.

GHS Real-time has a Planning Gantt Chart module, in which users can understand the number of employees required in the future with virtual planning. Users can use another module, Reporting Gantt Chart, to get information about past planning.

GHS Real-time’s Shift Editor module gives users many opportunities to manage staff activities during operation time. It is possible to get someone into or out of the shift. Users can change staff’s shift times and teams, call a staff early or leave him to work overtime.

The system provides bi-directional communication between employees and back-office people by task assignments to mobile devices in the hands of employees. Whatever a dispatcher does in the Real-time application is reflected directly in the mobile application and vice versa. A mobile application can be installed on any tablet or phone with the Android operating system.

All in all, GHS increases the productivity and efficiency of ground handling operations while reducing operational costs due to the optimized allocation of resources by providing excellent planning and scheduling capacity.
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