Airport ramp safety: for airports, handlers and airlines

The ramp is shared. The airport provides the stands, markings and airside rules, handlers do the work on the aircraft, airlines set the requirements, and catering, fuel and others drive across the same bay. Seeing how normal turnarounds go shows each of them where their part makes the work harder or easier.

Who sees what

• Airport operators control the stand layout, markings, surfaces, lighting and airside driving rules. Their influence shows up as threats such as congestion, a bay that is not ready, foreign object debris and vehicle movements.
• Ground handlers control the equipment, staffing and the way each task is done.
• Airlines control schedules, load planning and the information that reaches the ramp.
• Other parties such as catering, fuel and water drive on the same bay and meet the same safety zone.

No one of them sees the whole turnaround. Observation of normal work puts all of it in one picture.

What the reference data shows about the shared ramp

In the NOMIC reference data, from over 1,300 observed turnarounds, several of the most common threats sit at the boundary between parties:

• Other parties' vehicles driving on the bay: about 52% of turnarounds
• Foreign object debris: about 28%
• Airport and facility threats, such as congestion and bay layout: about 11%

These are patterns across many turnarounds, not proof of cause. You can explore the reference data by port type, aircraft size and stand, including contact and remote stands.

Using it together

An airport operator, a handler or an airline can run an observation cycle on its own. The results are most useful when they are taken to the others: a recurring threat from the airport's layout is a question for the airport, and a recurring threat from late load information is a question for the airline. The Learning Team session in each cycle brings the people who plan the work together with the people who do it. See how it works.