Programme

All session times shown are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), UTC +0

 Interested in contributing on one of our themes? Email max@groundhandling.com

09:05 - 09:40

Innovation: Thriving in a low volume world – lessons from another industry

Colin Boughton, Former European Operations Director, Fujifilm

Gary Burgess, Continuous Improvement Manager, FujfFilm

The packed departure gates and 25-minute turnarounds of 2019 seem like a distant memory as Covid decimates pax demand. But, don’t despair – there are adaptions that make it possible to survive and even thrive in a low volume world.
This session will look outside of aviation for best practice. We’ll hear from two business leaders, Colin Boughton and Gary Burgess, in the chemical manufacturing sector who helped build a successful business strategy on becoming the last man standing in a declining volume market. The session will explore how Continuous Improvement techniques, employee-led innovation and deep commitments to product quality turned a potential extinction event into an opportunity to grow market share, profit and boost morale. What can aviation learn from their story?

09:40 - 10:25

The GHI Big Debate: A HR strategy to help us out of the crisis

Gary Granger, HR Director, dnata

Benay Koz, Global Human Resources Manager, Celebi Aviation

Covid-hit Ground handling businesses have turned to furlough, layoff and redundancy at unprecedented levels in order to make it through a period of decimated volumes. Now vaccines offers us a glimmer of hope – what’s our strategy for returning crucial expertise to the workplace and have some skillsets been lost forever?  This session will ask the HR Directors of leading ground handlers to give us their stories and outline how they intend to ensure the return of employee talent in 2021. What role will multi-skilling of our teams play in boosting workforce productivity and what are the support schemes and flexible working solutions still available to our industry as fragile confidence returns?

10:25 - 10:55

Innovation: Hygiene/Cleaning solutions to boost passenger confidence

Dr Ralph Brueckner, Co-founder, Hecosol

Joachim Klaus, Occupational Safety Engineer, Lufthansa German Airlines

The aviation sector faces a definitive challenge in ensuring cleaning programmes that give aircraft cabins, airport touchpoints and communal staff areas a seal of Covid-safety. This session will explore how Lufthansa has tackled the challenge in partnership with Hecosol from optimum product selection to training of staff on the correct application of disinfection products. The two products TiTANO® and TiOMOULD® originate from this development. TiTANO® AIR has been specifically developed for In the aircraft sector and has been certified by Lufthansa Technik. The session will look at the science behind eliminating the virus risk and explore the most effective ways we can boost public confidence to travel.

10:55 - 11:20

Covid trailblazers: Overcoming the hurdles of the pandemic in partnership with your team– the story of Qatar Aviation Services Doha, Best Station award winner 2020

Charl Smit, Manager Baggage Handling, Qatar Aviation Services

Edward Enriquez, Manager Cabin Appearance, Qatar Aviation Services

Qatar Aviation Services Doha won the Best Station and GSE Innovation Awards at GHI’s Pride of Ground Handling Awards despite operating under the full force of pandemic. The secret of turning adversity into opportunity began with a unique focus on ensuring the wellbeing of frontline staff with a 24/7 Covid Command center. A compassionate approach from senior leaders and extensive collaboration with Qatar Airways “We take you home” initiative & airline customers has powered Doha to defy the pandemic. Qatar Aviation Services Team members, Edward Enriquez and Charl Smit will reveal insights into the QAS culture and what others can learn from their pandemic story.

11:20 - 11:45

Operational efficiency: Boosting productivity and saving money through automating ground handling cost control – an Aegean Airlines case study

Christina Markou, Airport Services & Commercial Agreements Manager, Aegean Airlines

This session will explore how Aegean Airlines streamlined processes, cut down on manual steps to provide a complete overview of contracts, invoices and credit notes at its stations with an automated PDC GroundCost solution. How does this automated solution boost payment accuracy and what are the opportunities for this kind of automated solution as we come out of the pandemic?

11:45 - 12:15

Employee-led innovation: The Cargo chute story

Ross Parnell, GSE Fleet Manager LHR & LGW, dnata

David Bunting, Managing Director - EMEA, JBT Aerotech

Some of the best ideas for boosting your KPIs may not be found in the boardroom but within the hustle and bustle of the ramp ground handling operation. This session will explore a case study in employee-led innovation, showing how the ground handling team at dnata UK during the early stages of the pandemic had pre-empted the use of passenger aircraft for cabin cargo (CIC).
Whilst offloading cargo from the cabin during the crisis led to the idea and development of an innovative piece of GSE in partnership with JBT Aerotech. How did stakeholder collaboration come to the fore and what can we learn about capturing more employee innovation from our people?

12:15 - 12:45

Leadership skills: Executive Reinvention – how you must change to meet the post Covid challenge

Desiree Perez, Leadership Coach & Aviation Consultant, Level Up Your Potential

Aviation business leaders have been to hell and back in 2020 with the disintegration of their long established business model almost overnight. Leaders have also had to deliver painful redundancy and furlough news to their trusted team whilst staying focused on a long-term business survival strategy. This session will set sights on the road to recovery. What is the new leadership manual in the post Covid aviation world and which golden rules still carry true?

12:45 - 13:30

Lunch break

13:30 - 13:35

Interactive Virtual Roundtables

Delegates to join breakout groups which will focus on key leadership themes and explore the challenges with a GHI facilitator.
Sessions are 30 minutes and will then repeat with the groups swapping. Each delegate can attend a maximum of three roundtables.

13:35 - 15:00

Roundtable 1: SLAs and KPIs

Wolfgang Fasching, Founder & Owner, Agora Consulting

Traditional SLAs based on OTP, first bag offload times and other high volume influenced indicators are in need of a rethink. The workshop will explore the value of SMART (simple, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-related) SLAs and how SLAs can be adapted post pandemic to the advantage of all stakeholders.

Roundtable 2: Harnessing Employee innovation

Colin Boughton, Former European Operations Director, Fujifilm

Gary Burgess, Continuous Improvement Manager, FujfFilm

The workshop will investigate how we as business leaders can create a culture where frontline employees feel empowered to put forward ideas on improving their business environments and how we capture and implement the ideas.

Roundtable 3: Creating a culture of the future

Desiree Perez, Leadership Coach & Aviation Consultant, Level Up Your Potential

James Wyatt, Aviation Consultant, aeroconcept

The pandemic has left its mark on all of us - as individuals and as a team of an organisation. How do we now use this opportunity to review, learn and adapt our current outlook, further bind our teams and provide the platform of continued sustainability for our business? It starts with us as leaders, building a ‘culture of care’ within our organisation and across the industry. The ‘culture of care’ builds the foundation for the ‘culture of change’ enabling our teams to embrace change and ultimately therefore create a ‘culture of the future’. Join us to find out how this approach can support you as an individual and the impact it can have on your team!

Roundtable 4: Digitisation

Christina Markou, Airport Services & Commercial Agreements Manager, Aegean Airlines

What steps can ground handlers and airlines take to implement automation that enhance the collaboration and boost the supplier-customer relationship after the operation has occurred?
This session explores two automation potentials that could minimise administrative workload and reconciliation post-operation.
  • What could the future process of registering adhoc ground services look like?
  • What invoicing standards are needed to implement automated cost control?

15:00 - 15:30

Group summary and learnings

Workshop facilitators will report back on the keynote findings from the roundtable discussions to the main group and identify