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CSAE member companies offer airlines and their customers a wide range of activities related to passenger handling and aircraft ground handling at airports.
Planes
Services around aircraft on the runway
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- Runway assistance: loading and unloading, power supplies, aircraft push-back, etc.
- Refuelling.
- Traffic and operations assistance.
- Airline catering.
- Aircraft load control and flight safety.
- Aircraft de-icing.
- Toilet emptying and drinking water supplies.
- Line maintenance.
- Cleaning and equipping aircraft.
- Representing airlines and supervising flights.
Luggage
Baggage management and transport services
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- Baggage sorting.
- Baggage delivery.
- Baggage claims handling (lost and found).
- Baggage trolley retrieval.
- Processing empty containers and trolleys.
- Processing lost baggage.
- Management of oversized baggage.
Support and development
Equipment hire, training and consultancy services
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- Training for airport staff, ground staff, reservation agents, reception staff, PHMR escorts, aircraft cleaning staff and runway staff.
- Rental, sale and maintenance of ramp equipment.
- Management software for assistants, airports and airlines.
- Training advice and expertise.
- Service station fuel assistance.
- Container storage and handling.
- Snow removal on runways and taxiways.
- Taxiway, road and car park cleaning.
Cargo, freight and mail
Commercial transport services
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- Handling and preparation of aircraft pallets.
- Cargo transit.
- Transfer, freight and mail.
- Recovery and processing of dollies and pallets.
- Sorting, courier and mail processing.
- Pharmaceutical and cold chain processing.
- Animal handling.
Passengers and crew
Passenger assistance services
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- Passenger assistance: check-in, welcome and boarding.
- Assistance for PRMs.
- Ticketing.
- Operation of VIP lounges and 1st class and business class passengers.
- Management of passenger queues.
- Transporting passengers and crew between terminals and aircraft, crew shuttles.
- VIP transfers.
Training in airport professions
Our highly diversified professions call for training courses that are increasingly leading to diplomas from organisations and companies specialising in the airport world. The courses consist of an essential theoretical part and a practical part that directly projects students into their future profession.
The airport services professions require training in the following areas:
- Regulatory: security, hazardous materials, etc.
- Technical: de-icing, aircraft push-back, machine operation, safety, etc.
- Operational: team management, co-activity, responsibilities and risks, etc.
These professions, particularly those in contact with the runway, are characterised by long apprenticeship periods that allow employees to access career opportunities through job bridges and new training courses during their working life.
Infrastructures
Airport infrastructures are made up of multiple buildings dedicated to
- passengers: terminals, car parks, boarding lounges, restaurants, shops, lounges
- baggage: check-in desks, loading and unloading bays, sorters, security areas
- freight: transit areas, preparation and palletisation warehouses, mail and courier sorting station
- aircraft: aircraft parking, taxiways, runways, maintenance hangars, de-icing areas, etc.
- equipment: parking areas, maintenance areas, loading areas, service stations
- attendants: petroleum, catering, ramp assistance, cargo assistance, buses and assistance for passengers with reduced mobility, water and toilet emptying
- utilities: heating and air conditioning production, waste and effluent treatment, electrical distribution and charging, distribution of fuel for aircraft and equipment.
All the groundhandling companies and their staff use these infrastructures, which are rapidly becoming undersized due to the growth in traffic. CSAE will continue to pay particular attention to improving infrastructures for staff, equipment and aircraft as part of the decarbonisation of airports: implementation of the distribution of carbon-neutral fuels such as HVO and SAF, electrical distribution and charging infrastructures and hydrogen production and distribution.
Lastly, the financing of this decarbonisation will have to be equitably shared between airports (infrastructure) and assistants or leasers (equipment).
Sustainable development
For several years now, CSAE members have been aware of the need to play an active part in the process of decarbonising air transport. This approach has led them to modify their equipment fleet to switch to carbon-neutral equipment and to raise employee awareness of eco-driving and more respectful use of infrastructure.
In order to measure the progress of these actions, CSAE members monitor the development of their fleets on an annual basis, and have recently decided to set up an environment and innovation committee within CSAE, one of whose main objectives is to draw up a white paper on best practices in favour of sustainable development and the decarbonisation of the sector.
Equipment
Airport assistants use a wide range of equipment to provide services for passengers, aircraft, freight and baggage:
- Passengers: buses, shuttles for passengers with reduced mobility, courtesy vehicles, golfettes
- Aircraft: stairs, carpets, lifting platforms, air conditioners, power units, engine starters, aircraft pushers and tractors, maintenance gondolas, de-icers, drinking water and toilet emptying trucks
- Cargo: cargo tractors, pallet transfer units, aircraft cargo trucks, pallet and container carriers
- Baggage: baggage tractors, baggage trolleys and container carriers.
Assistants use mobile and semi-fixed equipment powered either by internal combustion engines (diesel, carbon-neutral fuel HVO or decarbonised hydrogen) or by electric motors powered by batteries or fuel cells (hydrogen) or plugged into the mains.
The main challenge in the years to come is to ensure the energy transition from fossil fuels to carbon-compensated fuels and decarbonised solutions (electric or hydrogen).
CSAE is mobilising all its members around these objectives and is working with FNAM and UAF to achieve them.
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