Ground handling covers a wide variety of services required by airlines to operate flights. These services include areas such as maintenance, fuel, and freight handling. Ground handling also covers services such as passenger check-in, catering, baggage handling and transport within the airport.
Since 1997, the provision of ground handling services in the EU is covered by Directive 96/67/EC, opening ground handling services to competition. Prior to this, ground handling services at EU airports were governed by monopolies, leading to many airlines complaining about high prices and poor-quality services.
Under the EU rules, there is now free competition for most ground handling services at larger EU airports, resulting in more choice for airlines. This in turn means improved service levels and lower fares for passengers.
For certain services such as baggage handling, ramp handling, fuelling and freight services, the Member State may however decide to limit the number of suppliers. In these cases, the minimum number of suppliers must be two and at least one of the suppliers must be independent of the airport or the dominant airline at that airport. Some airlines choose to provide ground handling services for themselves, which is known as 'self-handling'. Similar rules on competition apply to 'self-handling' airlines.
The safety of providing ground handling services is also followed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) which has proposed a related regulation.
Legislation
List of airports covered by the Directive 96/67 published pursuant to its Article 1(4).