RE: Who Will Pilot The Airline Business

     Having just been at the IATA IGHC where we had a plenary session on safety in the ground handling industry (summary here), I think a major focus has to be on the horrific staff turnover numbers in this industry.
      Menzies just published their figures and I am led to understand that the numbers are not “outliers” by any means; indeed, they could even be on the lower side of average.
      Given that the average turnover for all industries in the U.S. is about 16 percent these (Menzies) numbers are horrific.
      I say to people: next time you sit on a plane and listen to the safety briefing, remember your plane was just loaded by the lowest bidder using minimum wage employees—probably on split shifts if it’s permitted—who have only been on the job a few weeks.
      When airlines outsourced the “dirty work” of ground and cargo handling they got what they wanted—lower costs—but they should have been careful about what they wished for, as the result is an unsustainable and unsafe situation.
      It’s all very well for airports to talk about expansion plans, but if the expanded operations continue to rely on minimum wage employees working on a job we would all agree is highly undesirable (unless you are a plane enthusiast), then this is a house built on sand.
      The truth is that there has been zero change to the technology that loads wide body aircraft since the first Pan Am flight to London in 1971.
      Furthermore, airlines have no incentive to push Boeing and Airbus to change the way planes are loaded when they get the savings they want through super aggressive ground handling biddings.
      Food for thought.
Bob Rogers 
Vice President, ULD CARE