Hans Klaus, Head of

SAirServices Corporate

Communications, describes

the division to which

Swissport International is

assigned in the SAirGroup

and the synergies offered

by its various member com-

panies.

Page 4

S A i r S e r v i c e sSwissport should have

secured ISO 9002 certifica-

tion for all its operations

worldwide by mid-1999.

Swissport Zurich, Geneva

and Basel will have achieved

this top quality standard by

December 1998.

Page 5

I N S I D E“Swissreporter” asked Paul

Reutlinger, President &

CEO of Sabena, about the

latest industry developments

– alliances, codeshares and

so on – and for his views

and impressions of the

Swissport service product.

Page 8

I N T E R V I E W

Swissport International Ltd.International customer journal

Issue 1January 1999

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C U S T O M E R J O U R N A L

Swissport Brasil may have onlybeen born on May 20, 1997; butthe company has already notchedup a number of successes. Underthe guidance of CEO Aldo Ferretti,the young firm and its 900 highlymotivated personnel offer thewhole range of quality groundhandling services at seven airportsthroughout this vast South Ameri-can country.

I T A L L S TA R T E D fairly mod-estly, with Delta Air Lines’ daily de-partures from Rio de Janeiro and SãoPaulo, which Swissport Brasil startedto handle on June 15, 1997. But in

1998, things really took off, with newairports added almost every month:Brasilia on March 1, Fortaleza onApril 1, Manaus at the end of April,Salvador on July 1 and Recife on Au-gust 1, bringing to seven the airportsbenefiting from the company’s su-perior services.

Aldo Ferretti, a Swiss by birth, andthe company’s “Diretor para o Bra-sil”, may look back with a wry smilenow on the work, the stress, the im-provisation and the long days andshort nights of those pioneeringmonths. At the time, though, it was aphenomenal test for everyone involved,

with countless hours of overtime,nightshifts, and a virtual ban on weekendsand even public holidays.Ferretti well remembers how he wasselected from the Swissport Manage-ment Pool in March 1997 and asked totake a closer look at the “project” inBrazil. As a former Swissair man,Ferretti already had six years of expe-rience of the country under his belt.So he was well familiar with its cul-ture, customs, mentality and workingmethods. Perhaps most importantlyof all, he had a working knowledge ofthe local language: as he says himself,“If you can’t speak Portuguese, youwon’t get anywhere at all.”

After some tough negotiations and athorough assessment of the range ofoptions available, Swissport Interna-tional began its Brazilian adventureby assuming responsibility for theground handling of Transbrasil, oneof the country’s leading air carriers.With the ramp equipment it inheritedfrom the airline – which included high-loaders, belts, pushback tractors, pas-senger stairs,ground power units,dol-lies, and toilet and water trucks –Swissport Brasil was able to make rap-id inroads into the local ground han-dling market. The deal also gave thenew company virtually instant accessto five of the country’s major airports.

SWISSPORT WORLDWIDE ■ SwissportBrasil Ltda. is well on the road to success

Themagnificentseven

Swissport Brasil is only 18 months old,but it’s already operating at seven key air-ports in this enormous country.

As Ferretti recalls, “It was very im-portant for everyone concerned – thestaff, the unions and the authorities –that we took over as quickly andsmoothly as possible. That’s also whyour workforce expanded from fifty toaround a thousand in just fourmonths!”

One major factor in working the Bra-zilian market is the vast distances in-volved, as Ferretti points out. “It’s abit like being based in Helsinki andbeing expected to run the operationsin Athens, too. You can only do it ifyou’ve got good people in there doingthe job for you.” It was thus clear forFerretti from the start that he wouldhave to have two or three top-classmanagers in place at each location –people he could rely on a hundredand ten per cent. “I recruited thesetop managers myself,” he recalls.“And I must say that this was whereall the connections I had made in myprevious years in Brazil came in veryhandy indeed.”

Invaluable investmentIt was an invaluable investment: asFerretti readily admits, the companywould never have negotiated thosetesting early months if it hadn’t beenfor the inexhaustible flexibility, theinnovative skills and the sheer mo-bility of his management crew. Thepassenger stairs alone, to give just oneexample, had to be shifted some13 000 kilometres by road before theywere finally in the right airport loca-tion.

It was a learning experience, too: inthose early weeks and months, almost60 per cent of the time available wasspent intensively training the com-pany’s personnel. Motivation wasnever a problem: the Brazilian staffwere raring to go. But there was astrong need to familiarise the newemployees with the Swissport qualityphilosophy and the standards thatwere expected.

Constant trainingIn fact, this training extended farbeyond the initial start-up period,andcontinues to this day. Every area ofthe company’s activities has its owninstructor/trainer who constantly

tours the various airport operationsto enhance the local staff’s knowledge,appreciation and skills. It’s an ap-proach that has reaped sizable divi-dends:“Our customers tell us that wedon’t just meet the standards theyexpect; we actually exceed them,”Ferretti says with pride.“But it’s some-thing we absolutely have to do,” headds. “We have strong local compe-titors in SATA and various smallerbut very competitive ground handlingcompanies; and we just have to aspireto this excellence if we want to sur-vive.”

Where next?Having grown so rapidly in the lasttwo years,Swissport Brasil’s next taskis to consolidate its position and

maintain its services at this high qual-ity level. It has already built up a for-midable customer base, which in-

2 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999

S W I S S P O R T W O R L D W I D E

FA C T S & F I G U R E SSwissport Brasil Ltda.Total current workforce: 895 personnelFlights handled per month: 2800Passengers handled per month: 30 000Cargo handled per month: 7600 tonnesMonthly turnover: USD 2 million

The seven Brazilian airports at which Swissport Brasil currently operatesare: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia, Manaus, Fortaleza, Recife andSalvador.

”Everything OK?” Luiz Leite (right), Swissport’s Station Manager at São PauloInternational Airport, makes a personal quality check of the company’s front-line operations.

“We’re very happy working with Swissport!”A genuine enthusiasm for their jobsis plain to see with (right to left) Supervisor Claudia Lohmann and her check-incolleagues Raquel Marciana and Berenice Bhorgi.

cludes reputed air carriers such asDelta Air Lines, TAP Air Portugal,Spanair, Transbrasil, ATA, Laker,Inter Brasil, Total, TAM, Passaderoand of course Swissair. Further ap-proaches to potential customers arecurrently being made. “Keeping ourexpansion going at just the right paceis quite a challenge for all of us,”Ferretti concedes.“What we’re tryingto do is keep our capacities and ourskills geared as closely as possible toour customers’ wishes and volumes,to ensure that we can give all our cu-stomer airlines a ground handlingproduct that fully lives up to theSwissport name.”But surely Aldo Ferretti has somelonger-term goals, too? He does. “Wewant to be operating at the country’stop ten airports,” he says. In concreteterms, having built up a strong pres-ence in the centre and north-east ofthe country, the company is looking toestablish an operating base in thesouth, too – a particularly attractiveprospect given the rapid rise of Mer-cosur. But Ferretti’s plans don’t stopthere. They don’t even stop at thecountry’s borders: further expansionto Montevideo,Buenos Aires or otherairports in Argentina, Chile or Peruare also in his project portfolio.

Christian P. Somogyi

This pushback tractor,which was painted gold to celebrate Swissport Brasil’s firstbirthday, raised a round of smiles among customer carriers and other airportpartners.

“With our nameand our links to

Swissair, familiaritywith our companyand its productsis already very

high.”

“We want tomaintain Swiss-

port’s high qualitystandards ineverything

we do.”

The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999 – Swissreporter 3

Swissport Brasil has 232 person-nel at Rio Airport, putting all theirmotivation and skills into theirground handling job.

SOME 80 TO 90 per cent ofSwissport Brasil’s workforce in Riobrought a vast amount of airline ex-perience with them when they joinedthe South American member of theSwissport International group. “Andwe’re all incredibly proud to do ourbit in maintaining our high qualitystandards,” emphasises Augusto Cal-valcante, Station Manager for theairport’s Swissport operations. Swiss-port handles flights at Rio for DeltaAir Lines, TAP Air Portugal, Trans-brasil, Spanair, ATA and Swissair,though negotiations are currently un-der way with other possible custo-mers, too. “We wouldn’t have muchtrouble adding a few other carriers,”adds Claudia Oelmann, who is incharge of contracts for the local Swiss-port organisation. Virtually everyonein the Swissport team is keen to stressthe close and fruitful collaborationthey enjoy with the other local opera-tions of partner companies within theSAirGroup, such as Gate Gourmet,the airline catering organisation; andeveryone is keenly aware of the syn-ergic potential offered by these cor-porate family ties. “We can really usethe excellent image of our multinatio-nal group of companies to offer pack-ages of services that are precisely tai-lored to individual customer needs,”Oelmann explains. “That means notjust ground handling services,but cater-ing for their flights if they need it, orthe kind of software solutions thatAtraxis,our IT company,can provide.”

State-of-the art terminalThe Swissport Rio team finds it quiteunderstandable that, as the businessheart of the country, São Paulo pre-sently generates more flights to handlethan their own operation. But, as theyare eager to point out, that could wellchange.Rio Airport is currently build-ing a state-of-the-art terminal thatwill set new benchmarks of comfortfor carriers and passengers alike. Thelocal Swissport organisation is spread-ing its wings in other directions, too: italready acts as general manager for

EYEWITNESS REPORT ■ Swissport Brasilin action at Rio International Airport

Breathing lifeinto a qualityphilosophy

Swissair and Spanair. “We’re quiteprepared to develop completely newareas of activity at the new airport,too,” Calvacante adds with a smile.

Stephan Beerli

P O R T R A I T

Aldo E. Ferretti, Swissport’s “Diretor para o Brasil”

lowed up this initial vote of confidencewith an offer to train him as a futurestation manager.Aldo was on his way,and was soon adding to his first

experience abroad with re-lief duties in Kinshasa,Johannesburg,Nairobi,HongKong, Accra, Lagos andSingapore. In the end, as heputs it himself:“I just had toadmit one day that I’d cho-sen Swissair rather than aphysics degree.”

His initial deployments werefollowed by more perma-nent station managementstints: Kinshasa for twoyears, Johannesburg for fiveyears, Athens for threeyears,Karachi for two years,Singapore for two years,Riode Janeiro for six years andNairobi for five years, along

with further reliefs to Brazzaville,Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Neryungri,Yakutsk and Budapest.

So what did he get up to in all thoseyears? How did he spend his freehours, what hobbies did he pursue? “Ispent my spare time in Beirut work-ing on my pilot’s licence,” he recalls.“I had a pilot’s licence before I had adriving licence, in fact. And I thentook a Cessna 150 on a four-hourflight over the sea to Nicosia to indulgemy second passion, parachuting.When I was in Karachi, I wasn’t toofar from the Maldives, so diving wason the agenda.And during my time inRio I got into ULMs – ultralightaircraft.” In fact, he is the first ULMpilot in the country to perform “long-haul” flights as far as Paraguay and

ALDO FERRETTI has been a mul-tinational nomad almost all his adultlife. After a youth that took him tovarious locations in his native Switzer-

land, he completed his baccalau-reate in Thun (Canton Berne) andenrolled to study physics at ZurichUniversity. He first came into con-tact with Swissair when he soughtpart-time work to help finance his stu-dies: he was soon cleaning aircraft,loading and unloading baggage andperforming any of a wide range ofadditional casual tasks.

It was one of his uncles who drew hisattention to a dispatcher’s coursebeing offered.Aldo took it,but sworeto himself that he would return im-mediately afterwards to finish hisdegree. The trouble was, he was oneof the best on the course, and wassent off for service in Beirut as soonas it was over; and Swissair then fol-

along the Brazilian coast to thecountry’s north-east corner.

An inquisitiveperfectionistSo is Aldo Ferretti a bit of an adven-turous type? How does he see him-self? He grins at the suggestion.“Aninquisitive perfectionist who’s al-ways on the lookout for a new chal-lenge – that’s how I’d describe my-self,” he replies. He certainly seemsto feel at home in Brazil. He com-municates in fluent Portuguese withhis business partners,as he does withthe staff who break in on our inter-view from time to time for the oddinstruction or decision.Aldo Ferretticurrently lives on the coast,about 90kilometres away from his workplacein São Paulo.But a move to Rio is al-ready on the cards, when SwissportBrasil moves its head office there.Once he’s settled at his new loca-tion, he intends to devote more timeto his music – he plays the pianoand the clarinet – while continuingwith his diving and his ULM pur-suits.

And where does a man who’s spenthis whole life travelling plan to settlein the twilight of his career? Hebought a house not far from Lugano,in the Italian-speaking part of Switzer-land, about ten years ago.“You haveto put your roots down somewhere,”he explains. When he does go back,he’ll probably find a fairly overgrowngarden awaiting him. But thenagain, he might just fly that ULM upthe Amazon instead…

Christian P. Somogyi

Augusto Calvacante (right), Swissport’s Station Manager at Rio InternationalAirport, talks to his Brazilian ramp staff.

Aldo Ferretti, President and CEO of SwissportBrasil,has set course for corporate success in notime at all.

S W I S S P O R T W O R L D W I D E

SR Technics –cost-effective aircraftmaintenanceAs the independent successor toSwissair’s reputed engineering andmaintenance division, SR Technicscan draw on an impeccable pedigreeof quality and reliability. SR Technicsis not only responsible for the over-haul and maintenance of the entireSwissair aircraft fleet; it is also entrustedwith the technical care of the fleets ofother airline clients. In fact, some 50per cent of its total capacity is devotedto third-party customers outside the

SAirGroup.SR Technics offers the full

range of maintenance andoverhaul services for

Boeing, McDonnellDouglas and Air-bus aircraft at itsZurich and Shan-non bases, rightup to heavymaintenance vi-sits – the majorstripdownoverhauls thateach aircraft

undergoesevery few years.

The company isconstantly adding

to its range of ser-vices, too: prepara-

tions are currentlyunder way to handle

the new Airbus A330and A340, which are join-

ing the fleets of Swissair andits airline partners over the next fewyears.

Swissport makesSAirServices happenOf course, no airline today can suc-ceed without effective ground han-dling. The quality services that Swiss-port offers its fellow companies in theSAirGroup – and Swissair and Cross-air in particular – are a key factor inthose companies’ and the group’s suc-cess. It is a success that heartensSwissport and all its personnel, and asign that the company is excellentlypositioned for the years ahead, what-ever challenges growing liberalisationand intensifying competition maybring. Because whatever surprises thefuture may hold for the air transportworld, one thing is certain: effectiveground handling has never been need-ed more.

Hans Klaus

4 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999

S A i r G r o u p

Swissport International is a mem-ber of the SAirGroup. In fact, it’s adirect subsidiary of SAirServices,which, with SAirLines (airline oper-ations), SAirLogistics (cargo andlogistics) and SAirRelations (hotels,catering and travel retail), makeup the group’s four corporate divi-sions.

I T ’ S G O O D to know that Swiss-port is part of such a strong serviceleader as SAirServices. Of the fourcorporate divisions that make up theSAirGroup, SAirServices is certainlythe most diverse. With SR Technics(aircraft engineering and mainte-nance),Swissport International (groundhandling worldwide),Atraxis (air transport-related IT applications),Avireal (facility man-agement) and SAirSer-vices Invest (the hold-ing company forvarious smaller ser-vice providers),SAirServices iswell on the wayto realising thekind of “globalservice provider”strategy that isundoubtedly theway ahead.

A globalnetwork ofservicesBut what does thegrouping of these variedcompanies under a singledivisional banner reallymean? It means that allthe companies of SAirSer-vices work closely togetherin a kind of “virtual net-work”, aligning and coordi-nating their products andservices to ensure that theymeet the customer’s needs ascompletely and comprehen-sively as possible. To take justone example, if Swissport In-ternational takes over theground handling at CapeTown Airport for a num-ber of carriers, its airlineand airport customers might wellwant to make use of Atraxis’s sophis-ticated Departure Control System,too. In promoting interlinks and syn-ergies of this kind, SAirServices cancreate a chain of services that offerthe passenger a smooth and seamlessair travel experience. In fact, it’s pre-

SAirServices ■ The “Global Service Provider” strategy

An impressive network of servicesextending all over the globe

cisely because of its heterogeneitythat SAirServices offers so much syn-ergic potential to airlines and airportsalike. All the companies withinSAirServices are legally autonomousentities which are fully owned bySAirServices AG, itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAirGroup. TheSAirServices division employs a totalof some 7000 personnel,and generatedoverall turnover of CHF 1 841 millionin 1996.

the whole airport handling market isgradually opening up, and more andmore airport operators are turning tospecialist companies to provide thehandling services they require. Thisoffers vast opportunities for Swiss-port International, the ground han-dling company of the SAirGroup.Swissport is already active on almostevery continent, having undergonerapid growth in the last few months,and now operates in countries as geo-

Swissport – a worldleader in cost-effectiveground handling“Everything has to be just right” –Swissport’s slogan says it all.As manyinternational airports around theworld are readied for privatisation,

graphically diverseas Turkey, PuertoRico,Germany and

Brazil.The expansion is likely to con-tinue: Swissport has set itself the cleargoal of becoming one of the biggestground handling providers in theworld.

Swissport Zurich, the SwissportInternational group’s biggest opera-tion with some 2000 personnel,successfully obtained ISO 9002certification at the end of Septem-ber. And Swissport Geneva andBasel were set to receive this qual-ity seal of approval in December1998.

I N T O D AY ’ S M A R K E T en-vironment of increasing liberalisationand ever-toughening competition,Swissport is more determined thanever to meet its customers’ quality ex-pectations,however high they may be.“In obtaining ISO 9002 certification,we are undertaking to maintain andfurther develop a system of perma-nent enhancement of our services andour products, to the benefit of all ourcustomers,”says Willy Hallauer,Swiss-port Zurich’s President and CEO.But what exactly does it mean fora customer to work together with aground handling company that ap-plies the ISO 9002 norm? BarbaraZweifel, Vice President Finance &Planning, explains:“Swissport Zurichhas three main areas – passengerhandling, baggage handling and

aircraft handling – in which all theworkflows and procedures are nowdocumented in detail. It was a lot ofwork, but it was very important work,too.”

“The main benefit, though, is for ourcustomers,” Zweifel continues. “ISO9002 gives them total transparencyfor all the various workflows. It’s akind of guarantee, if you like, that thestandards we’ve agreed for each areaof our activity – ramp services,baggagesorting, aircraft cleaning, passengerassistance, gate services, lost-and-found and so on – will always be met,regardless of who is actually doing thework concerned.”“Our ISO 9002 certificate really makesus something of a pioneer in the groundhandling business,”adds Simon Widmer,

The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999 – Swissreporter 5

I N S I D E

QUALITY MANAGEMENT ■ Swissportintroduces ISO 9002 worldwide

A milestone onthe TQM road

Swissport Zurich’s Vice PresidentMarketing. “And make no mistake:our commitment to ISO 9002 is farmore than a paper one. ISO 9002 is aclear promise from our ExecutiveManagement and our personnel tokeep faithfully to all our contractualagreements and work continually tomake them as beneficial as possible toeveryone concerned.”

Customer benefit countsOne of the most crucial conditions ofISO certification is its insistence thatevery certified company should ap-

point its own quality managementofficer.The duties of the officer are toconduct internal quality audits,and toassist in quality audits conducted byoutside parties.They are also expectedto submit monthly quality reports tothe company’s top management.

“Our ISO 9002workflows andprocedures haveto be regularly

checked.This allows us

to identifysources

of errors andtake the relevant

action withoutdelay.”

“Customer benefit is definitely centre-stage in all these activities,” saysHansjörg Meyer, the Quality Manage-ment Officer for Swissport Zurich.Meyer is convinced that, with the in-dividual security that each employeenow has through having a clearer pic-ture of the workflows involved andtheir own personal role,Swissport willbe even better able to adapt its groundhandling services to individual andspecial customer needs.“In this sense,”he concludes, ”ISO certification is areal milestone for us on our road tototal quality management.”

Joe FritscheThe Swissport Zurich ISO 9002 team can be proud of what they have achieved. From left: Simon Widmer,Vice PresidentMarketing & Communications; Hansjörg Meyer, Quality Management Officer; Barbara Zweifel, Vice President Finance& Planning; Pit Lehmann and Walter Streuli, Managers Purchasing & Ground Support Equipment.

“ISO certificationis a real milestonefor us on our road

to total qualitymanagement.”

Hamburg

Berlin

Düsseldorf

Frankfurt

MunichBaselStuttgart

ZurichGeneva

London

Istanbul

Izmir

Antalya

Ankara

Bodrum

Dalaman

Some of the more than 300 customers served bySwissport International around the worldAdria AirwaysAer LingusAeroflotAir CanadaAir EngiadinaAir IndiaAir LankaAir LittoralAir MaltaAir MauritiusAir NostrumAir OneAir SeychellesAlitaliaAmerican AirlinesAOMAustrian AirlinesAvioimpexBalair /CTABalkan Bulgarian AirlinesBase AirlinesBritish AirwaysBritish MidlandCathay PacificChina AirlinesCie Corse MéditerrannéeCroatia AirlinesCrossairCyprus AirwaysCzech AirlinesDelta Air LinesEgyptairEl AlEmiratesEurowingsFinnairIberiaIcelandairJapan AirlinesJATKLMKorean AirKuwait AirwaysLauda AirLOTLufthansaLuxairMaersk AirMalaysia AirlinesMalevMeridianaMiddle East AirlinesOlympic AirwaysPakistan InternationalRegional AirlinesRoyal Air MarocRoyal JordanianSabenaSASSaudi Arabian AirlinesSingapore AirlinesSobelairSouth African AirlinesSwissairTAP Air PortugalTatra AirThai AirwaysTunis AirTurkish AirlinesTyrolean AirwaysVASP

6 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999

N E T W O R K

K E Y F I G U R E S F O R 19 9 8

Number of employees 6 580

Revenue (USD) 415 000 000

Passengers handled p.a. 35 200 000

Aircraft handled p.a. 343 000

Tel AvivCairo

Nairobi

Johannesburg

Durban

Cape Town

San Juan

FortalezaManaus

Brasilia

Rio de JaneiroSão Paulo

Adana

Trabzon

Recife

Salvador

L O C AT I O N E N T I T Y O P E R AT I O N A L A S O F

London Swissport Jan 97

Düsseldorf aerogate* Dec 97

Frankfurt aerogate* Jan 99

Berlin aerogate* Jan 98

Hamburg aerogate* Jan 98

Stuttgart aerogate* Nov 97

Munich aerogate* Nov 97

Adana Havas* Sep 97

Ankara Havas* Sep 97

Antalya Havas* Sep 97

Bodrum Havas* Sep 97

Dalaman Havas* Sep 97

Istanbul Havas* Sep 97

Izmir Havas* Sep 97

Trabzon Havas* Sep 97

Tel Aviv Q.A.S.* Nov 96

Nairobi Swissport Sep 97

Johannesburg Swissport Jan 98

Cape Town Swissport Jan 98

Durban Swissport Jan 98

São Paulo Swissport Jun 97

Rio de Janeiro Swissport Jun 97

Manaus Swissport Apr 98

Fortaleza Swissport Apr 98

Brasilia Swissport Mar 98

Recife Swissport Aug 98

Salvador da Bahia Swissport Jul 98

Puerto Rico Swissport Nov 97

Cairo EAS* Jan 97

* joint venture with Swissport

The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999 – Swissreporter 7

P L A N N E D F O R 19 9 9

France

Greece

Italy

Spain

Peru

Argentina

and some other key projects currentlyunder way (subject to approval).

N E T W O R K

How does Sabena, a key Swiss-port customer, view the productsand services of the SAirGroup’sground handling company? Wevisited Paul Reutlinger, Presidentand CEO of the Belgian-based air-line, to solicit his views on thelatest industry developments – code-shares, alliances and hubs – andhis honest opinion of the Swissportservice product.

Swissreporter: Mr. Reutlinger, nextspring you’ll be celebrating forty yearsof service with Swissair and the SAir-Group. Your blood must have littlewhite crosses in it! So how easy was itfor you to swap clothes and become aSabena man?

Paul Reutlinger: I found it prettyeasy, actually, for a number of rea-sons. One of them was the strongsimilarities between Swissair and mynew company. They’re both the air-lines of a small country with a smallhome market. And don’t forget thatwe’re an airline of the SAirGroup,too: the SAirGroup owns 49.5 per

cent of us through its subsidiary SAir-Lines. I must admit I did say “Swiss-air” a few times at the start whenI meant to say “Sabena”. But not anymore! I’ve become quite a “Sabenien”now.

You’re keen to turn Brussels into a realEuropean hub for Sabena. Does thatmean you want to focus more on yourEuropean network?

I think we can be very proud of ourEuropean network. We’ve got nofewer than eleven destinations inFrance, for instance.

We have over 110 flights a day be-tween Belgium and the UK. And weopened our 75th European destina-tion a few days ago.This whole exten-

sive European network is centred onour Brussels hub, which, fortunatelyfor us, is in a great position geo-graphically for north-south and east-west traffic. Our long-haul network isfairly small in comparison. So ournext efforts will be focused on grow-ing our long-haul routes, especially toand from the Far East.

You also aim to make Brussels the hubwith the shortest transfer times – 25 min-utes is the figure we hear. With aconnecting time as short as this, willyou still be able to offer the kind ofground handling standards you want –like making sure that all the baggage isproperly handled and loaded onto theright flights?

This minimum connecting time is avital element in ensuring the com-petitiveness of our product. It’s a goalof the Qualiflyer Group, too, by theway, and one I wholeheartedly sup-port. In fact, we’ve got our minimumtransfer time for Brussels down to 30minutes already.

How did you manage that?

We’ve only been able to achieve thisby introducing a totally new installa-tion. It’s called the Quick TransferCentre, and it’s home to all the ser-vices – security, the police, the cus-toms authorities and so on. On top ofthat,we’ve introduced a sophisticatedsystem of Care Teams to collect peoplewith tight connections from theaircraft when they arrive, take themby bus to the Quick Transfer Centre,process them there and then takethem to their onward flight. It’sproved very popular: most of the in-crease in traffic that we’ve seen in1997 and 1998 has been in connectingpassengers.

Quick connections are probably verypopular with business travellers, aren’tthey?

Yes,but it’s not so much the quicknessof the connection that’s important; it’swhat we call the “elapsed travel time”– the total time it takes you to get fromA to C via B.

8 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999

O U R C U S T O M E R S

INTERVIEW ■ with Paul Reutlinger, President and CEO of Sabena

“I give our groundhandlers excellent marks.”

“A good hub willcreate extra traffic

itself.”

“Most of the increase in traffic that we’ve seen in 1997 and 1998 has been in connecting passengers.”

How do you mean?

Well, it’s the elapsed travel time thatdetermines where your connectionwill appear on a computer screen dis-play when the passenger comes tobook their flight.

If your elapsed travel time is shortenough, you’ll be on the first screen,and you’ll be as close to the top of itas possible. That’s a huge advantage:studies have shown that 85 per cent ofall bookings all over the world aremade on flights that appear on thefirst screen display.

Ground handling vitalHow would you rate ground handlingin terms of its importance to Sabena’sentire service chain?

Very high. Let’s face it, the battle forcustomers today is fought on theground, not in the air. So the betteryou are on the ground, the faster,moreefficient and friendlier your person-nel, then the better your overall prod-uct will be.

Here in Brussels, Sabena has its ownextensive ground handling organi-sation. But how can you win the“battle on the ground” if you out-source those activities to a specialistground handling company like Swiss-port?

If we outsource our ground handling,we must have a cast-iron guaranteethat these activities are going to beperformed professionally, that thecompany can offer them at a com-petitive rate, and that it can do all thiswhile still conveying our corporateidentity to our customers. When it

“The quality of itsground handlingis a vital factor in

any airline’ssuccess.”

comes to the service chain, the “pro-vider authority” should always re-main with the airline. Swissport cando all this: with its dedicated services,it has already shown its customer air-lines that it can represent their in-terests and still look after their pas-sengers as if the carrier were doingthis itself.

As President and CEO of Sabena,what would you say are the most im-portant things you expect from a groundhandling company in terms of its per-

formance, its customer focus and itsservice-provider potential?

I think the infrastructure is the mostimportant thing of all – short dis-tances, no major obstacles, that kindof thing. If the infrastructure is right,the rest should fall into place.

A professional approachAnd what expectations does Sabenahave of a specialist ground handlingcompany?

A professional attitude and ap-proach; friendliness with customers;and a check-in system that works flaw-lessly, of course. If, as a customer air-line, you can find a company that per-forms ground handling as its corebusiness and has the critical mass tomake it worthwhile investing in ad-vanced systems, workflows and train-ing for its staff, you’re onto a verygood thing.

As a member of the Qualiflyer Group,are you obliged to choose Swissport asyour ground handling partner, or areyou free to choose your ground han-dler yourselves?

We’re free. We have, it’s true, estab-lished a company within the QualiflyerGroup that belongs to all of its mem-bers. The idea of Qualiflyer GroundServices is to buy-in ground handlingfor the group’s member airlines inEurope, beyond their various homemarkets. When it comes to do so,Swissport is just one of a number ofcandidate providers.

You travel between Brussels andZurich quite a lot yourself, so you mustbe pretty familiar with Swissport’s prod-ucts from first-hand experience. Yourimpressions?

I’m always pleasantly surprised athow friendly and obliging the peopleare. I always find myself wondering: isit because they know who I am, or arethey like this with all their customers?But when I talk to our Belgian cus-tomers, they tell me that Swissport’sproduct in Zurich really is somethingrather special. They really do have

friendly staff who do their job with aminimum of fuss and a maximum ofspeed.

Among the bestWith the kind of job you have, youmust have experienced a lot of groundhandling operations all over the world.How would you rate Swissport’s ser-vices by comparison with them? If wegave you a scale of one to ten, for in-stance, with ten as the best mark, whatgrade would you give?

If I think of Swissport’s services inZurich, I’d have to put them right upamong the best in the business. I’dgive them a nine, I think.

So there is room for improvement…?

Not really.That missing point is moreof a reflection of Zurich Airport as awhole. I think the infrastructure reallyneeds to be improved.

In what way?

If you’re a passenger at a bus gate dur-ing one of the peak times, you’ll findit very hard to find a seat. I think anairport needs to be a “living organism”,too: it needs to set trends,exude a cer-tain style, appeal to the senses, andoffer its users an experience of somekind. I must say, though, that Zurich ismaking some efforts here.

The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999 – Swissreporter 9

Do you think we are going to seemore outsourcing within the airlinebusiness?

I think so. I think we’ll see more andmore airlines returning increasinglyto their core business of flying peoplefrom one place to another, and out-sourcing all their other activities.

“I find Swissportfriendly,

professional andquick.”

And I would say that the better andmore competitively a specialist op-erator can do these other jobs – Swiss-port is a good example in the groundhandling field – the bigger the chancethat an airline will ask them to do so.

How do you see the airline industrydeveloping as a whole?

I think we’re going to see greater andgreater consolidation into large inter-airline alliances. As President ofSabena, it’s very important to me thatwe are part of one of these big fami-lies, too.

Do you see any developments in thesector that will only affect Sabena?

No strategic ones, no: all of thesewould have to be discussed and coor-dinated with Swissair and the rest ofthe Qualiflyer Group. In this sense,we certainly see no value in develop-ing our own set of alliance accords.What we will continue to do is con-clude route-specific partnerships,much like Swissair has done on its FarEast routes. I’m sure this is the bestapproach: rather than compete witheach other head-on all the time, it canoften make far more sense to worktogether.

Thank you for your time.

Interview and photos:Christian P. Somogyi

“In my personal experience, Swissport’s staff really do get on with their job witha minimum of fuss and a maximum of speed.”

“Let’s face it, the battle for customers today is fought on the ground, not in theair.”

“I think we canbe very proud

of our Europeannetwork.”

O U R C U S T O M E R S

Q.A.S. enjoys success inprivate and corporatemarketQ.A.S. of Tel Aviv has developed aSpecial Flights Team dedicated to theprivate and corporate flight market.The move reflects the company’s con-viction that this market sector will seefurther growth in both volume andrevenue terms.Q.A.S. has recruited a wide range ofcustomers over the last two years.Many of them are “frequent travel-lers”, meaning the company gets tohandle their flights at least more thanonce. Q.A.S has also developed an ex-cellent reputation for itself within thecompanies sending it the clients: itsability to arrange landing permits atrelatively short notice, its full-ser-vices package including reducedfuel prices along with VIPhotel accommodation, ca-tering and transportation,and above all the personalattention provided by theSpecial Flights Team all com-bine to provide a top-qualityVIP corporate handling service.Clients already recruited in-clude Jet Aviation, BusinessJets, Aeroleasing Geneva& Ukraine,Air RoutingInternational andBaseops Europe.The latest additionto the client roll isJET-LINK, an Is-raeli-based operatorwith a fleet of five ex-ecutive jets.

For further information contact:The Q.A.S. Special Flights TeamPhone 00972 3 9730365 / 9733099 /

9712557 (24-hour service)Fax 00972 3 9730365E-mail qasiltd@netvision.net.il

Eyal Sagi

How Swissport is ensuringYear 2000 complianceSwissport takes the Year 2000 issuevery seriously indeed. Over the pasttwelve months, a team of senior em-ployees has been working to identifyall possible problem areas, inventoris-ing hundreds of computer applications,infrastructure elements and businessrelations. As a result, the group nowknows exactly what needs to be certi-fied as Year 2000-compliant.At the individual Swissport companylevel,each CEO is assuming direct re-sponsibility for ensuring that their or-ganisation achieves overall Year 2000compliance. And each CEO is sup-

ported in these endeavours by theirown dedicated team.Group.2000 is the central task forceappointed to ensure Year 2000 com-pliance throughout the SAirGroup.Swissport’s Chief Information Offi-cer, who is a member of the task force,is in overall charge of Y2K activitieswithin the Swissport Internationalgroup.In fact,Swissport has already achievedYear 2000 compliance with its corecomputer applications. Sincethe group and its ac-tivities are close-ly linked tothe

airport au-thorities,air trafficcontrolandmanyotherairportservicesuppliers, Swissport has set up a com-prehensive programme with its mainairports of Zurich,Geneva and Basel.At all other stations,Swissport is work-ing with IATA to ensure that each sta-tion will be audited for its Year 2000compliance and a compliance state-ment issued in the light of these ac-tivities.Swissport will conform to BritishStandards Institute (BSI) Year 2000compliance criteria. In doing so, it willoffer all its customers the comfort ofreceiving the same top-quality groundhandling services before, during andafter the millennium change.

Urs von Euw

ATMOS: a worldwidesurvey on social climateThe Executive Management of Swiss-port International, in agreement withall Country Managers, is conducting aworldwide survey on the social climatewithin the Swissport Internationalgroup. The project, which goes underthe name of ATMOS, is being led byProMind Consulting Ltd., a companybased in Lausanne, Switzer-

land.The aim of

the survey is tolisten to staffand obtain a

precise pictureof how they feel

about their current situa-tion within their company and theSwissport International group. Thesurvey covers a broad range of topicsincluding company structure and ob-jectives,management, the employee’sown field of activity, the efficiency ofexisting workflows and procedures,and satisfaction with working condi-tions and the job as a whole.The survey was conducted simulta-neously in the first two weeks of No-vember in all countries where Swiss-port International is represented.Theresponses are currently being evaluat-ed.The Swissport International groupplans to make such surveys a regularevent, to monitor general content-ment within its companies’ ranks.

Joseph In Albon

Studying baggagehandling operationsin ZurichThree staff members from the Sin-gapore Airport Terminal Services(SATS) Baggage Unit visited ZurichAirport recently to study and under-stand the working of the baggagehandling system at one of Europe’sbest airports.Baggage Supervisors Catherine Chongand S. Kanapathy and Baggage Offi-

cer Mutaliff Irnapullah made thevisit at the invitation of SATS’ cli-

ent,Swissair.They spent three dayswith Swissair’s ground handlingagent Swissport and SIA Station

Manager Zurich B.Sachithanant-han. They observed the func-

tioning of the baggagehandling system, the bag-

gage reconciliation sys-tem (BRS),the baggage

transfer facility, lostand found, and otheraspects of baggage

operations.Many features of the

baggage operations sys-tem in Zurich are similarto those in Singapore,and the baggage expertsmade the most of theirvisit, discussing withSwissport staff opera-tional matters – includ-ing constraints andproblems faced bybaggage handlers –and ways to improve

work methods.Said Catherine:“It was a good

learning experience to watch theSwiss baggage boys in action. I wasvery impressed with their efficiencyand good work attitude.”In the team’s report, several goodpractices adopted by Swissport werehighlighted, and recommendationsmade for SATS to adopt some of theBRS procedures.

(from “Outlook” the in-house news-paper of the Singapore Airlines Group)

Swissport pulls out allthe stops in Puerto RicoThe good life of Puerto Rico was rude-ly interrupted on September 21 whenHurricane Georges arrived in mid-af-ternoon.Within a couple of terrifyinghours, the hurricane had done incred-ible damage all over the island, rip-ping open buildings, tearing offroofs, replanting trees in the middle ofhighways and turning streets into fu-rious torrents.

10 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999

N E W S B R I E F S

Swissport news and views fro

Luckily,none of Swissport’s local staffwere injured; indeed,apart from a fewbaggage carts, even the company’sequipment was left largely intact.There was,however,no power,no wa-ter and no means of communication.San Juan Airport was declared closedall day on September 22. But the verynext morning, some reduced flight ac-tivity resumed; and so Swissport, too,had to swing back into action. It didso,with a much-reduced crew,no power,no water and only one telephone line.Under these extremely difficult con-ditions,all our employees showed tre-mendous dedication to their job.

gust, when these top executives des-cended on the mountain resort of En-gelberg in Central Switzerland. Over60 managers attended, representingmore than 20 Swissport stations allover the world. The attendees spenttwo days of intensive working sessionslistening to brief presentations fromSwissport International ExecutiveManagement on the corporate policy,goals and strategies of the rapidly-growing group.The event also offeredan opportunity for the various execu-tives to get to know each other a littlebetter, courtesy of a traditional SwissEvening Meal.There had been talk ofa test of courage in store for all atten-dees – bungy jumping out of the cablecar up to local Mount Titlis. But the ru-mours proved unfounded; so it waswith a strange sense of relief that thegroup’s top managers clambered intorubber dinghies for a teambuildingriverrafting experience on the RiverAa instead.

Dieter Altenburger

Letting the train take thestrainZurich and Geneva airports havelong been fully linked into the Swissrail system. Both airports can bereached quickly and smoothly viainter-city trains from almost everypart of the country. For a few yearsnow, that journey has been even morecomfortable and convenient than be-fore. The unique Fly Baggage systemenables air travellers leaving fromZurich or Geneva and getting to theairport by train to hand in their bag-gage at their local rail station andhave it checked through to their airdestination.The Swiss railways also offer the pos-sibility of checking in for the flight atsome 20 Swiss rail stations. Up tillnow, this “full-check-in” service hasonly been available for travellers onSwissair, the airlines of the QualiflyerGroup and Balair/CTA.But from Oc-tober 1 to 31, a pilot project was con-

ducted by Swissport Zurich in closecollaboration with the Zurich AirportAuthority, Jet Aviation and the SwissFederal Railways to extend the ser-vice to other air carriers. With the re-sults of the trial run now evaluated,the partners have set themselves theclear aim of introducing full check-in(with seat reservation and boardingcard) for all scheduled and chartercarriers at 23 Swiss rail stations fromsummer 1999.

Simon Widmer

Swissport Zurich treatscustomers and airportpartnersSwissport Zurich took great pleasurein inviting the management of all itscustomer airlines and its main airportpartners, along with their spouses, toits first dinner-dance on November3. The whole evening was arrangedaround a surprise excursion, andevery effort was made to keep the twodestinations a secret. The eventkicked off with a guided tour andcocktails at Zurich Zoo.After this, the100 or so guests were taken on fora delicious candlelight dinner at the“Giardino Verde” or “Green Garden”– not a garden, in fact, but a formernursery now converted into a selectjungle-style restaurant available toprivate groups.

After the meal Willy Hallauer, Presi-dent and CEO of Swissport Zurich,thanked all the company’s partnersfor their continued business and theexcellent cooperation that Swissporthad enjoyed with them in 1998. Thefestivities were concluded with anexotic floorshow with two “snake-people”, live music and dancing.

Simon Widmer

The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999 – Swissreporter 11

N E W S B R I E F S

m all over the world

The following days were to proveeven more hectic, as an air bridge ofcharters – Boeing 747s,Antonovs,USAir Force aircraft and more – landedday and night bringing relief supplies,generators, water, food, and even icecubes (seeing 29 pallets of ice cubesunloaded from a 747 is a sight to re-member!). The activity was so hectic,in fact, that parking stands and ware-house space were soon at a premium.But of one resource there was neverany shortage – the dedication and en-thusiasm of Swissport’s local staff.

Jacques Delessert

Top managers make asplashSwissport International held its first-ever Management Meeting for theCEOs and Vice Presidents of all itsmember companies at the end of Au-

The first-ever meeting of Swissportmanagers from all over the world: to-tal focus during the sessions…

…and total commitment to their river-rafting voyage!

Published by:Swissport International Ltd. –an SAirServices company

Publishers:Stephan Beerli, Vice PresidentMarketing & Sales, SwissportInternational Ltd.E-mail: sbeerli@sairgroup.com

Hans KlausCorporate CommunicationsSAirServicesE-mail: hklaus@sairgroup.com

Editor-in-chief:Christian P. SomogyiE-mail: cps@datacomm.ch

Contributors to this issue:Dieter AltenburgerStephan BeerliJacques DelessertJoe FritscheJoseph In AlbonHans KlausEyal SagiChristian P. SomogyiUrs von EuwSimon Widmer

Translations:SAirGroup Translations

Layout and art direction:Caroline Lipp, DAZ

Printing:DAZ, Druckerei Albisrieden AGZurich

Editorial and production office:CPS Communications, ZurichPhone: +41 1 252 20 27Fax: +41 1 260 65 24

Publication:Three times a year.

Subscriptions:Free subscriptions are available formanagement personnel of airlinesand other selected companies.Please send your subscription regis-tration, together with your fulladdress, to the Swissreporter Infor-mation Desk.

Changes of address:Please send details of any change ofaddress (by returning your mailinglabel with the changes clearly indi-cated) and any other corres-pondence regarding subscriptions tothe Swissreporter Information Desk,Fax: +41 1 812 90 94.

Printed in Switzerland.

© 1999 Swissport InternationalLtd., Zurich Airport, Switzerland.

Swissreporter Information Desk:Phone: +41 1 812 49 54Fax: +41 1 812 90 94

Internet: www.swissport.ch

The staff at Swissport Puerto Rico dida fantastic job recently under extreme-ly difficult conditions.

Swissport Zurich’s customer airlinesand key airport partners enjoy thecompany’s first surprise excursion,which ended up at the “Giardino Verde”.

12 Swissreporter – The Swissport customer journal ■ January 1999

P O S T S C R I P T

C E O B O X

Swissport means customer dedicationSwissport was established as a legally-autonomous ground handling com-pany on January 1, 1997, as part of a broader reorganisation of the SAir-Group.The roots of our new company lay in Swissair’s former ground hand-ling operations in Zurich, Geneva and Basel. And it was on the strength ofthis experience and expertise that Swissport International set out to expandits business and operations into countries all over the world. Now, after just19 months of truly dynamic growth, Swissport operates at 32 airports inEurope, the Middle East, South America and Africa, and numbers some 300airlines among its customers.

Our strategy is a simple one: to develop a global network of ground handlingcompanies on the strength and the basis of the quality services we provide.Wherever Swissport is around, its customer airlines can count on serviceswith a “Swiss quality” label.Well-trained managers, qualified and motivatedpersonnel,and state-of-the-art computer systems and equipment – these areour trump cards in everything we do. Plus, of course, our central QualityAssurance System, which is our customers’ guarantee that the principles ofthe Swissport Quality handbook are applied all over the world.And our ISO9002 certification,which we were scheduled to have for all three of our Swissoperations – in Zurich, Geneva and Basel – by the end of 1998, and whichwe should have for all our non-Swiss operations by the middle of 1999.

Swissport has set one principle above all else: customer dedication. What-ever our customers need to distinguish themselves and their product at theairports they serve, we will provide it. An ongoing dialogue with our cus-tomers is a key component in all these endeavours.And the publication youhold in your hands will be, we hope, one of our best vehicles of communica-tion, helping us keep you fully informed about us and our activities, andgiving you the chance to tell us what’s on your mind.

I look forward to hearing from you.Joseph In Albon

President & CEOSwissport International Ltd.

C O N TA C T S

InternationalSwissport International Ltd.P.O. Box, 8058 Zurich AirportJoseph In Albon, President & CEOPhone: +41 1 812 27 79Fax: +41 1 812 93 34SITA: ZRHDISR

Stephan Beerli, Vice PresidentMarketing & SalesPhone: +41 1 812 49 50Fax: +41 1 812 90 94SITA: ZRHOXSR

Thomas Neff, Vice PresidentBusiness DevelopmentPhone: +41 1 812 27 24Fax: +41 1 812 93 34SITA: ZRHDISR

Dieter Altenburger, Vice PresidentFinancePhone: +41 1 812 26 50Fax: +41 1 812 90 94SITA: ZRHOXSR

SwitzerlandSwissport Zurich Ltd.P.O. Box8058 Zurich AirportWilly Hallauer, President & CEOPhone: +41 1 812 61 70Fax: +41 1 812 91 95SITA: ZRHKSSR

Swissport Genève SAP.O. Box1215 Geneva AirportErnest Hochuli, President & CEOPhone: +41 22 799 30 10Fax: +41 22 799 31 67SITA: GVAOKSR

Swissport Basel Ltd.P.O. Box4030 Basel AirportGeorg Peter, President & CEOPhone: +41 61 325 23 00Fax: +41 61 325 23 07SITA: BSLKSSR

BrazilBrasilia, Fortazela, Manaus, Salvador,São Paulo, Recife, Rio de JaneiroSwissport Brasil Ltda.Aeroporto Internacional deSão PauloTerminal 2 / Asa CCaixa Postal 306107141-970 Guarulhos – SPAldo Ferretti, President & CEOPhone: +55 11 6445 22 02Fax: +55 11 6445 24 89SITA: GRUXHSR

KenyaNairobiAirSide Ltd. / Swissport KenyaJomo Kenyatta InternationalAirport, Unit 2P.O. Box 44549NairobiOlav Everts, President & CEOPhone: +254 2 82 20 20Fax: +254 2 82 23 29SITA: NBOKSSR

United KingdomLondonSwissport U.K. Ltd.Heathrow AirportTerminal 2, Room 2065Hounslow, Middlesex, TW6 1HGUnited KingdomCarlyle Grey, President & CEOPhone: +44 181 754 91 22Fax: +44 181 759 78 26SITA: LHRKSSR

GermanyBerlin-Tegel, Düsseldorf, Hamburg,MunichaerogateP.O. Box 23153385324 Munich Airport, GermanyWerner Teubner, General ManagerPhone: +49 89 9759 23 00Fax: +49 89 9759 22 34SITA: MUCKK8X

Stuttgart, FrankfurtaerogateP.O. Box 14, Terminal 260549 Frankfurt, GermanyHermann Delliehausen,President & CEOPhone: +49 69 6980 99 51Fax: +49 69 6980 99 50SITA: FRAKSSR

Puerto RicoSan JuanSwissport Puerto Rico Inc.150 Carr. Sector CentralL.M.M. International AirportSuite 14Carolina, P.R. 00979Jacques Delessert, President & CEOPhone: +1 787 791 48 28Fax: +1 787 791 30 95SITA: SJUKKSR

South AfricaCape Town, Durban, JohannesburgSwissport South AfricaP.O. Box 111Johannesburg International AirportJohannesburg, South AfricaArmin Unternährer,President & CEOPhone: +27 11 928 85 26Fax: +27 11 928 85 47SITA: JNBOWXH

IsraelTel AvivQ.A.S. – Quality Airport ServicesP.O. Box 136Ben Gurion International Airport70100 Tel AvivYossi Raviv, President & CEOPhone: +972 3 971 25 57Fax: +972 3 971 23 16SITA: TLVKKCR

TurkeyAdana, Ankara, Antalya, Bodrum,Dalaman, Istanbul, Izmir, TrabzonHAVASProf. Nurettin Öktem Sk. No. 280260 Sisli – IstanbulJean-Didier Savioz,President & CEOPhone: +90 212 233 24 84Fax: +90 212 233 38 53SITA: ISTGMXH

F E E D B A C K , P L E A S E !

Our new customer journal is in-tended to keep you fully briefed ofall developments in the range ofour activities, the breadth of ourservices, the extent of our networkand the skills and expertise of ourstaff. But that’s not all: we want toinclude you – our customers – in“Swissreporter”, too. So pleasewrite, fax or e-mail us or use theenclosed questionnaire to tell uswhat you think of our first “Swiss-reporter”, so that we can tailorIssue Two even more closely toyour wishes and needs.

We look forward to your feed-back!