2024 CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
3 December 2024 - Ramp of the future
Join GHI for a special ceremony to champion ground handling excellence and the all-important people who make it happen.
GHI will be shining a light on those who have blazed a trail in delivering innovation, safety advances, service quality and passenger satisfaction. To mark GHI’s 25th Annual anniversary, the awards will also include a special Lifetime Achiever Award to acknowledge an industry leader who has pioneered excellence and enhanced ground handling reputation around the world over the past 25 years.
Upon our 25th Annual anniversary, GHI will ask industry leaders to give us their expert insight on how they see the ground handler and aviation environment changing shape in tomorrow’s world. Do robots and autonomous GSE replace all human resources on the apron? What are the key tenants of the SGHA in 2050? And, could a race to the bottom left unchecked have sparked airlines and airports to return to self-handling? The panel will share their assessments. GHI will also reveal the findings of exclusive research among aviation leaders on what they see as the key trends of the apron and the wider industry by 2050.
This case study will go behind the scenes with a major airline, supplier and GSP to detail how they have reconfigured ramp facilities to be ready for a more sustainable age. What advice can be offered on optimising the business case for electrification? And, how should aviation stakeholders build in charging capacity that is going to be fit for future GSE demand?
Flexible shift patterns, career development plans or taking a sympathetic stance when staff need to make last minute adjustments because of unforeseen personal circumstances. Could these relative simple steps offer far bigger paybacks than pay rises and bonuses when it comes to building and retaining a high performance station team? GHI invites ground handling operators to share their firsthand experience of the most effective methods in alleviating employee turnover and retaining people talent.
ID90 Travel provides a SaaS platform that supports flight ticketing for leisure or business travel for eligible ground handlers. We are a Closed User Group specific to airlines, ground-handlers and aviation-related employees who can extend the benefits to their family & friends. We also offer access to deep industry-discounts to 1,800,000 global hotels, rental cars, and cruises. We are focused on helping companies retain and recruit talent. D90 Travel is trusted by top companies like United, Hawaiian, Frontier, Alaska, Spirit, Swissport, Menzies Aviation, Dnata and AGI/ATS.
This session will invite battery suppliers and GSE manufacturers to detail some of the most exciting advances in GSE battery technology that can help operators advance the electrification of fleets while airport charging infrastructure lags behind. The panel will explore sodium-ion, solid state and other pretenders to Lithium ion as the GSE battery type of choice. We’ll also hear the expert view on measures like utilising airport buildings as energy power banks and battery as a service as bridgeheads to a more sustainable GSE age.
4 December 2024 - Skills, people and productivity
GHI invites rising stars aged 30 or under working at leading handlers, airlines and airports to give us their mandate for change and improvement in the industry they’ll lead by 2050. How does gen Z perceive work-life balance, digital platforms, communication styles and organisational culture differently to earlier generations? The panel will ask these CEOs of tomorrow to talk candidly about the future that they will define.
GHI invites C-level leaders at ground handling businesses for a no-holds barred discussion on tackling some of the seismic challenges sweeping across the sector. From standing tall with airline customers to achieve more sustainable contract margins to a proactive approach to developing future leadership talent within their operations. The session will ask leaders to reveal their defining challenges and a gameplan for turning crisis into opportunity.
Armed with hi-vis, safety boots and a camera crew, GHI Chairman, Max Gosney, reports on going back to the ramp with the Viggo team at Schiphol Airport pre-conference. The behind the scenes visit includes interviews with team leaders, safety managers and operatives on the biggest constraints facing handling teams and the opportunities to entice more young talent into the world of turnarounds. Jelmer Melissen will give insight on what we found as Viggo’s CTC and lead the discussion points.
With a record five billion passengers expected to take to the skies in 2024, airports are once again feeling the pain of congested aprons, full gates and lengthy security queues. This panel will investigate how ground handlers might be the secret weapon in freeing up capacity and securing outstanding on-time departure scores. Which airports are leading the way? And, what are the contractual mechanisms that could establish win:win partnerships between airport and handler as the norm?
Join us at Damarel as we showcase the latest generation of the FiNDnet Suite—an enterprise-level turnaround management, service capture, and billing solution. Whether you're a small operation or a global ground handler, FiNDnet offers a class-leading solution used worldwide to seamlessly coordinate, monitor, and enhance all aspects of airport operations. It comprehensively addresses your operational and business processes and leverages automation to drive cost reduction, performance enhancement, and revenue growth.
Join us to see how the latest version features a complete mobility solution for SLA monitoring and event timings, ensuring that FiNDnet empowers you to deliver unparalleled service.
FiNDnet. Your workforce, connected.
Paul Bruton, Senior Consultant, Damarel Systems
This session will invite leading operators and influencers to discuss the power of Insta, TikTok and other social media channels in connecting aviation with a new talent pipeline. The panel will give their advice on the best way to build your business’ online presence. What are the dos and don’ts of a social media strategy.
The exoskeleton is a powered, super-human style suit that can be worn by ramp operatives to enhance their lifting capacity and endurance. Could this innovation be a game changer for reducing musculoskeletal injuries, sick leave and making the apron a more accessible/ enjoyable place to work? This panel will investigate and hear all the latest in GSE innovations to aid more ergonomic and safer loading activities in the hold.
Most employers track staff attendance, sickness and on the job performance intensively via a host of KPIs. But, are we missing a huge opportunity by not assessing an employee’s overall health and happiness as a leading performance metric? This session will make the business case for building a proactive bid to address your employee wellbeing and avoiding an estimated £322billion being lost globally to high turnover and poor productivity by ignoring this critical issue.
5 December 2024 - Cargo focused day
The air cargo market has enjoyed a spectacular renaissance in 2024 with eight straight months of double digit year-on-year growth. With global trade on the rise, e-commerce continuing to soar and restrictions on maritime trade – are we entering a golden era of growth for air cargo? This session will assess the market trends expected in 2025 and how GSPs can capitalise.
E-commerce will record another year of double digit growth in 2024 with more of the same forecast for next year in a market that is worth nearly $19 trillion globally. With air cargo capacity already stretched, how are operators on the ground investing in their facilities and fleets to ensure they keep pace?
This session will reveal how a leading air cargo carrier has developed advanced ground handling partnerships to power its cargo growth. The session will look at the hallmarks of a high performance cargo partnership between airline and GSP and discuss the right KPIs, GSE and employee engagement strategies to ensure stations are primed to service ever increasing demand safely and efficiently.
This session will invite suppliers and cargo leaders to detail the most dynamic digital innovations being deployed within their cargo operations to drive OTP and safety. We’ll look at the latest examples of warehouse robots/drones and their impact on picking errors and productivity.
GHI concludes our anniversary Annual by inviting key supporters to share some of their favourite memories of GHI Conferences of yesteryear. We’ll also be asking industry leaders to reflect on the changing shape of aviation and the greatest ground handling innovations since GHI launched the Annual in 1999.