Increasing the Efficiency of Aircraft Ground Handling—A Case Study

Abstract

This research was focused on increasing the efficiency of aircraft ground handling at the airport. The main goal of the research was to improve the individual processes that are part of the aircraft ground handling in order to speed up this operation, as well as improve the turnaround time between individual flights to enhance the overall throughput of airport stands. The objective of the research was to measure the times of standard airport processes that are part of the aircraft handling, measure the turnaround time between individual flights at the selected airport and increase the efficiency of each process that was measured. After the measurements had been taken, changes were introduced, and the times were measured again. The changes were mainly focused on the following aspects: the position of ground handling equipment before the arrival of the aircraft, the deployment of staff, and the routes taken by ground handling equipment. The measurements were taken during the summer on a fixed stand, with a standard number of employees and with the same type of aircraft. In total, 78 measurements were taken in which 2340 partial times were measured during the entire course of aircraft ground handling before departure to the next destination. After the changes were implemented, the same measurements were taken again to see if the changes that had been implemented could speed up the overall process of the aircraft ground handling. Subsequently, all data were evaluated using statistical methods. All measurements were done at the Košice airport.