Baltic Ground Services Appoints CEO To Poland Division
Baltic Ground Services (BGS), an international provider of ground handling and into-plane fueling services, has announced the decision to appoint its long-standing Chief Production Manager Linas Geguzis as the new CEO of Baltic Ground Services Poland. With the new leader in the forefront the Poland-based company is planning to significantly expand the scope of its products and services as well as extend the list of its clients by increasing the number of flights served by 40 percent in 2014.
Successfully operating since 2010, today BGS serves Lufthansa, Aeroflot, Aer Lingus and other major carriers in the Polish Warsaw, Katowice and Krakow airports.
"Normally it takes up to four years for a new company to establish itself in the passenger and ground handling segment, whilst attracting larger clients requires no less than three-to-four years of successful presence in the market," said Geguzis."In Poland we have managed to achieve the latter in as little as two years’ time. Now, when the initial stage of development is over, we are planning to shift our focus towards increasing the spectrum of our products and services. We expect that this year the company will serve over one and a half thousand of flights. However, our plans for the upcoming year are even more ambitious and we are planning to bring that number up by another thousand."
According to Geguzis, currently the air transportation market and in Poland is rapidly growing. In terms of the local passenger flow, the country has already surpassed the pre-recession level with almost 25 million of air passengers per year. It is expected that in less than 10 years’ time this number will climb over 40 million.
"Whilst operating in the three largest Polish airports we are planning to serve over 160 thousand of passengers this year alone, said Geguzis. "Based on the market perspectives, especially in the Warsaw airport, next year we will continue to focus on the provision of ground handling, fueling and catering services. Moreover, this year we have paid considerable attention to the improvement of our internal processes and HR optimization. This has lead us to a 30 percent decrease in operational costs. Therefore, we are anticipating a significant increase in BGS revenue."
Meanwhile, there is an increasing presence of low-cost carriers in Poland. Experts point out that already today almost 50 percent of all international flights to/from Poland are operated by budget airlines. There are some suggestive evidence that such carriers will continue to increase their market presence in the country as one of the largest low cost operator has opened its second base in the Krakow International earlier this year.
"An active growth in the Polish air transportation market is directly related to the intensifying low-cost carrier activity," added Geguzis. "Strategically, we are prepared to cater for the needs of such airlines with a special package of solutions to suit budget air transportation service providers. For instance, recently Baltic Ground Services has introduced its own web-based departure control system which is designed to facilitate the complex proccesses of check-in, boarding and baggage registration. As it is extremely low-weight and mobile, the new Avia DCS is particularly suitable for low cost and charter carriers as not only does it facilitate the passenger chek-in procedure but also helps to significantly reduce airline costs. Furthermore, later this year the company will start using its newly developed ecologic de-icing fluid, which will reduce the negative effects to the environment and thus appeal to nature-conscious clients."
About Baltic Ground Services:
Baltic Ground Services (BGS) provides ground handling and fuelling services, including check-in and boarding of passengers, baggage handling, aircraft cabin and exterior cleaning, cabin heating, de-icing, aircraft towing and pushback, catering as well as other services, at Lithuanian and Polish airports. In 2008, BGS has become the first in Europe and one of the ten in the world ground handling company to be awarded the ISAGO safety and quality certificate for ground handling services. BGS is a part of aviation business group Avia Solutions Group. For more about Baltic Ground Services, please visit us at www.bgs.aero.
