Guidance

Letter from Aviation Minister with the outcomes of the review of ground handling at UK airports

Published 30 March 2023

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Letter from Aviation Minister

30 March 2023

I am writing to update you on the outcomes following the conclusion of the ground handler review.

First, I want to thank you for your engagement during the review. Your input, time and expertise were invaluable in ensuring we were able to deepen our understanding of the aviation industry, the challenges facing it and potential remedies to address these. I greatly appreciate the contribution you have made towards supporting this review. 

Following the review’s conclusion, and through industry roundtables, we have formulated 10 focus areas for the government and the aviation industry to take forward, as set out in Annex A. Your engagement with us as we move towards the next phase of this work will be critical and we thank you in advance for your assistance with this. 

This review was established following the disruption to passengers at airports in summer 2022. As Aviation Minister, my overriding priority is to avoid a repeat of the unacceptable disruption seen during summer 2022, when many passengers were severely delayed or had flights cancelled at the last minute.

I have taken targeted action on slots policy, wet leasing and HMRC checks to ensure that this is not the case. I recognise that many of you expressed views about strengthening the regulatory framework surrounding ground handling, to ensure more consistent and higher performance.

My team will work with you and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over the coming months to clarify and encourage greater use of the powers already available to reinforce these standards. We will look to how we can share good practice, collaboration and coordination to ensure positive outcomes for passengers in summer 2023.

This autumn, I will look again at industry’s performance over the summer, to determine whether there is a case for government regulation to support minimum standards (for example, on baggage wait times). 

The conclusion of the review marks the beginning of strengthening of our engagement with the wider ground handling community. We look forward to working closely with yourselves over the coming months and years to ensure this industry can successfully recover from the pandemic, provide positive outcomes for passengers and ensure the UK can continue as one of the world’s largest aviation markets. 

We will evaluate the effectiveness of these focus areas in the autumn to understand whether they have made tangible differences to the industry, or whether it may be necessary to examine other possible steps, such as greater oversight of performance in the industry. 

Baroness Vere of Norbiton 

Annex A – Ground handler review focus areas 

Clarify and enhance standards

Ground handling is regulated across a range of areas – actions to clarify and enhance understanding and use of these could improve resilience, coordination and collaboration between parties in the aviation ecosystem. 

1. CAA and the Department for Transport (DfT) to work with industry to clarify and encourage greater use of performance standards, collaboration and coordination to improve productivity/efficiency. 

2. DfT/CAA will assess ICAO’s proposed changes regarding ground handling safety protocols ahead of an implementation date in July 2024 and continue to monitor safety standards in the industry. 

3. Government will continue to work to protect consumer rights and support industry to provide the best service possible for consumers as it rebuilds following the pandemic. 

Improved collaboration to enhance resilience and prepare for future challenges and opportunities

While forums for collaboration at different levels of the sector exist, this is not always uniformly effective. It is important that the sector plans appropriately for immediate issues, but also explores ways to understand and prepare for future challenges. For example, greater investment in infrastructure to enable automation and facilitate the sector’s transition to net zero.

4. Formation of a ground-handling trade association to enable better government and industry engagement. 

5. DfT maintains dedicated resource to engage with ground handlers, representing their views in and across government. 

6. Government (CAA/DfT) will engage regularly with industry to examine, plan and consider actions for future resilience issues. 

7. A pan-industry working group will consider future opportunities to adapt to future demands, for example, automation, net zero and so forth. 

Effective recruitment and retention

Ground handling agents struggled to attract and retain staff in 2022. In general, working conditions are more challenging compared to competing sectors, such as logistics and retail. Actions to improve access to resource and continually reviewing processes will support the aviation sector. 

8. The flagship programme between government and industry – the Generation Aviation Group –  will continue to support the aviation sector in recruitment, retention, upskilling and outreach.  

9. The UK has one of the most robust aviation security regimes in the world. We will ensure it reflects the changing operations of the employment market, as well as the challenges faced when seeking the required references when recruiting. 

10. Airports, airlines and ground handlers will form a pan-industry taskforce to identify and deliver long-term solutions at speed regarding airport ID processes to assist with onboarding.