Aviation Passenger Operations: Analysis of Ground Handling Process and Legal Requirements at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

This report analyzes the ground handling process at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and examines the legal and regulatory requirements for aviation users. It covers topics such as marshalling, baggage handling, refuelling, and compliance with EU laws. Findings highlight the importance of meeting airline needs and ensuring passenger safety.

Aviation passenger operations
- report about Amsterdam
Schipol airport

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Analysis of ground handling process at the airport and the way in which these facilities and
processes meet the needs of airlines............................................................................................1
2. Examination of legal and regulatory requirements at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for
aviation users...............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Aviation passenger operations can be defined as the activities which are performed by
airline industry's companies for the purpose of executing business systematically. While
managing such operations it is very important for the entities which are operating under this
sector to pay attention towards routes and environment of the country where flight is landing
(Bazargan, 2016). With the help of it, possibility of negative situations such as delayed flights,
bad climate etc. could be reduced. Present report is based upon Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
which is the main airport in Netherlands. Total range of it is around 9 KM in South-west of
Amsterdam. This report covers various topics which are analysis of ground handling process,
identification of the way in which facilities and procedures meet needs of airline. Additionally,
legal ad regulatory requirements at the airport for aviation users are also covered in this project.
MAIN BODY
1. Analysis of ground handling process at the airport and the way in which these facilities and
processes meet the needs of airlines
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is one of the largest airports of Netherlands and the area of
it is around 9 Kilometres. It is located in South-west of Amsterdam in Municipality of North
Holland. The owner and operator of it is Royal Schiphol Group. It is ranked as the third business
airport in Europe on the basis of passenger volume. It is the busiest airport in the region where
aircraft movement is very high.
Ground handling process can be defined as the combination of services and facilities
which are provided to the aircraft to reposition, prepare and reach to a conclusion of a flight. It
includes customer and ramp service functions so that all the procedures could be completed
appropriately (Boyd, 2017). There are various types of ground handling process which are
conducted at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is very important for the staff to handle them
appropriately so that needs of airlines could be meet appropriately. List of all the services and
facilities are as follows:
Marshalling: It is the visual interaction among the ground staff and pilots. Main purpose
of it is to lead an aircraft for parking appropriately at the airport. It si very important for the
pilots because they have limited vision of the runway and they are not able to see the obstacles.
With the help of it the flight could be landed properly. It is one of the main ground handling
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processes which are performed at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It helps to meet the needs of
airlines. Some of them are safe landing and take off. This requirement is met with the help of this
process as the pilots are directed by the ground staff to land the flights safely.
Baggage and fright handling: It is also a ground handling process in which specialised
equipments offloaded from the flights. Some of them are baggage belts, split loaders and
forktruks. Under this process, outbound fright and bags are loaded in the plane. This ground
handling service is provided to all the airlines which are going through from Amsterdam Airport
Schiphol. With the help of it need of loading and unloading of bags and fright are met in which
ground staff make sure that lading of aircraft is accomplished properly. This procedure is highly
focused with proper care of dangerous good and handling of them correctly. All the goods are
loaded and unloaded according to the load planner's instructions (Castaing and et.al., 2016).
Chocking and connection or disconnection of ground services: When a flight is
landed to the airport then the ground staff is responsible for inserting the wheel chocking. Apart
from this, this procedure is also focused with providing external services which are boarding
stairs, ground air-conditioning etc. All these elements are also focused at Amsterdam Airport
Schiphol whenever a flight lands here. With the help of it, need of airline which is successful
departure of travellers is met as it facilitate to make effective arrangements which are passenger
bridge, ground electrical service etc.
Refuelling: Before every take off of flights every airline is required to be refuelled and
refuelling is one of the ground procedures which are performed at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
for the purpose of meeting this need of airline. All the aircraft which will be out bounded are
refuelled according to command of pilot. It is completed with the remaining passengers who are
on board.
Aircraft cleaning: This ground handling procedure is related to the cleaning of cabin,
gallery counter, lavatories etc. This facility is provided to all the aircrafts which are landed at
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. With the help of need of hygiene and safety of passenger in
airlines is fulfilled. Under this process all the toilets in the flights are restocked and additionally
all the pillows and blankets which are available for comfort of passengers are replaced (Hemm
and et.al., 2016).
Toilet and water servicing: This ground process is focused with servicing of all the
toilets of air planes. It is provided to all the flights which are landing or taking off from
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Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. With the help of it, need of water and clean toilets could be
fulfilled. Under this procedure, all the tanks which are available for holding the waste are
emptied and services properly. This facility that is provided to all the flights is also focused with
refilling of potable water tanks of planes.
Catering: Under this ground process the staff make sure that all the needs for catering
are fulfilled so that all the passengers who are travelling from the flight can eat food in flights.
This service is provided to all the airlines which are going through Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
so that all the requirements of travellers could be fulfilled.
From the above discussion it has been determined that there are various ground processes
which are conducted at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol for the purpose of meeting different airline
needs. It is very important to monitor all of them and analyse that all the facilities are provided to
aircraft properly so that possibility of failure in meeting expectations of passengers could be
ignored (Marintseva and et.al., 2015).
2. Examination of legal and regulatory requirements at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for aviation
users
For all the organisations which are involved in the process of taking off and departure of
aircraft are required to make sure that all the legal and regulatory requirements are fulfilled by
them. As Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is one of them therefore it is essential for it to make sure
that all the legal requirements for arriving, departing and transferring passengers and for the
airlines are fulfilled by it or not. All of them are as follows:
EU law: It is one of the main law which is required to be followed by all the passengers
who are arriving or departing from an airport within European Union. It provides significant
rights to the individuals who are travelling in EU. The flights which are covered by this law
should fulfil following requirements:
 The flight is departing from an airport which is established in European Union but
operated by ant airline (Orlady, 2017).
 A flight that arrive at an airport of EU and operated by an European Union airline.
Some of the airports which are also covered under this law are Lichtenstein, Switzerland,
Norway, Iceland etc.
Some other legal requirements regarding the arriving, departing and transporting
passengers and airlines are as follows:
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 All the flights that are landing on the airport will be required to have security check so
that it could be analysed that all of them are safe for all the passengers who will board in
the flights.
 The passengers who are boarding in the aircraft are required to make sure that they are
not carrying anything harmful or illegal. For this purpose, they will be required to go
through a security check so that security of their luggage could be checked.
 All the airlines which are transporting the passengers are required to make sure that all
the procedures for handling them are performed appropriately (Schmidt, 2017).
There are various types of laws that are required to be complied by airlines while
transporting passengers. All of them are as follows:
Civil aviation act, 1982: This act is main imposed for airlines which are travelling
within or through EU. All of them are required to make sure that the conditions which are
imposed by government to take off or arrive an aircraft are fulfilled or not. The airlines under
this act are required to control the air traffic which is created by them so that possibility of
crashing could be reduced in future (Aviation related laws of EU, 2020).
Civil aviation authority regulations 1991: It is the amended version of the Civil
aviation authority regulations 1983. There are some drafting and miner amendments were made
in it. According to it, all the flights which are flying from or too EU should make sure that they
are paying attention towards security of all the passengers. It is one of the main legal and
regulatory requirement which is required to be focused by all the airlines (Winchester and et.al.,
2015).
Air carrier liability regulations 2004: This regulation is mainly related to the protection
of passengers. The main elements which are focused under it are denied boarding, flight delay,
cancellation, downgrading or upgrading. Under this regulation the main responsibility of the
operating carrier is to make sure that all the rights of passengers are secured.
Community air carrier liability order, 2004: This regulation states that there are
several rules related to compensation which are required to be focused by all the airlines within
EU so that the passengers can get a refund for their cancellation. On the other hand, in case of
denied boarding, cancellation and denied boarding the airlines will be required to allow
compensation to the passengers (Wu, 2016).
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All the airlines which are departing or taking off from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport are
required to make sure that they are complying with all the above described legislation so that
possibility of legal actions against them could be ignored. The aircraft that are landing at the
airport should make sure that security check is done so that security and safety of all the
passengers could be maintained (Wu and Hayashi, 2014). By complying all the legal and
regulatory regulations the airport will be able to perform the carriage of passengers properly.
Ignorance of all these requirements will result in legal actions against the airlines. The rules and
regulations that are made for passengers are also required to be focused and followed by them
while arriving or departing. If they are not able to do the same then it will be very difficult for
them travel. In such situations they will not be allowed to sit in the aircraft. The above discussion
of legal and regulatory requirements shows that for passengers as well as airlines it is essential to
comply with all the laws. With the help of it, they will be able to reach to the destination where
they want to travel or reach.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that aviation industry is concerned
with delivery of airline facilities to the passengers. There are various types of ground processes
which are performed at airports for the purpose of meeting needs of airlines. Some of them are
marshalling, baggage and fright handling, refuelling, toilet and water servicing, chocking and
connection or disconnection of ground services, catering, aircraft cleaning etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bazargan, M., 2016. Airline operations and scheduling. Routledge.
Boyd, D. D., 2017. A review of general aviation safety (1984–2017). Aerospace medicine and
human performance. 88(7). pp.657-664.
Castaing, J. and et.al., 2016. Reducing airport gate blockage in passenger aviation: Models and
analysis. Computers & Operations Research. 65. pp.189-199.
Hemm, R. V. and et.al., 2016. On-demand aviation regulatory obstacles and resulting research
roadmaps. In 16th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference
(p. 3301).
Marintseva, K. and et.al., 2015. Resource allocation improvement in the tasks of airport ground
handling operations. Aviation. 19(1).pp.7-13.
Orlady, H., 2017. Human factors in multi-crew flight operations. Routledge.
Schmidt, M., 2017. A review of aircraft turnaround operations and simulations. Progress in
Aerospace Sciences. 92. pp.25-38.
Winchester, N. and et.al., 2015. The impact of advanced biofuels on aviation emissions and
operations in the US. Energy Economics. 49.pp.482-491.
Wu, C. and Hayashi, Y., 2014. The effect of LCCs operations and scheduled services
deregulation on air charter business in Japan. Journal of Transport Geography.
41.pp.37-44.
Wu, C. L., 2016. Airline operations and delay management: insights from airline economics,
networks and strategic schedule planning. Routledge.
Online
Aviation related laws of EU. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://iclg.com/practice-areas/aviation-laws-and-regulations/united-kingdom>
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