Swissport International Ltd. (Swissport), the world’s leading provider of ground and cargo handling services to the aviation industry, today announced its plan to increasingly move load control services to its existing “Central Load Control” (CLC) locations over the coming years. This will allow Swissport to further combine and raise skills and system expertise in three core competence centres – based in Manchester, Marrakesh and Sofia – which serve as single point of entry for its customers. The process rollout will still start in 2014 with a gradual transfer of volumes to the CLC locations.
After a thorough customer survey with Swissport’s main customers it became evident that the industry-trend moves towards centralization of Load Control functions. As a result Swissport´s CLC concept has been enhanced with state-of-the-art technology: a new technology solution has been developed to ensure efficient data transmission. The communication will be facilitated thanks to web-based load plans and handheld devices like smartphones.
The new concept passed comprehensive testing with several airlines in all locations with very satisfying results. Swissport guarantees that its high quality standards will be fully met through IATA consistent and robust standard procedures, a comprehensive training program, and effective business continuity planning. The solutions Swissport is starting with are Amadeus Altéa Ground Handler software, the Departure Control System AxsControl as well as the Distributed Load Planning System (DPlan) by HP. In order to guarantee effective business continuity for its customers Swissport will implement a backup solution in case of system failure or other outages.
Simon Messner, VP Operations GH EA&LATAM and CLC Project Leader at Swissport International, commented: “The Centralized Load Control is a crucial step towards higher service quality through innovative technology and the combining of different system competencies. Our customers are increasingly asking for CLC solutions and value the ability for central audits and the single point of entry concept. We are very proud that Swissport can now provide such a solution on a worldwide basis.”
