Ground Assistance to an Airplane

We have more or less clear what are the procedures that passengers follow when they enter an airport to take a flight: billing, checks, and boarding. Also, the services available to airport users, customers with reduced mobility, children travelling alone, VIP rooms, transits, incident management, customer service, etc. ... But today, what we want to talk to you about, is the assistance that an airplane receives as soon as it takes to land and returns to fly. These assistance actions for passengers and aircraft are managed by the handling companies.

As you well know, a plane where it is truly profitable is flying, hence it is intended to be on land as little as possible. That is why, as soon as you land at an airport, a procedure protocol is automatically set up to prepare you for your next flight. To this period on land, ground handling agent calls it a stopover.

• The first of these procedures is to take charge of the parking of the airplane that, depending on the size or measures, will have to be parked in one place or another and is something that the airport authorities manage. Parking that also allows work on the plane with total comfort. Once the aircraft is parked or parked, the different handling equipment is put into operation.
• From the operations department, they carry the coordination, the elaboration of the load sheet (weight, distribution, very important to know where the plane's center of gravity is), to send operational flight messages (departure time, number of passengers).
• The team that deals with the passengers, is the one in charge of transporting them to the aircraft, which can be by buses when the plane is remote, or through corridors that lead directly to the plane, called fingers.
• The cargo handling, as the word itself indicates, is the one that handles the goods that are transported as air cargo, acceptance and storage as well as the preparation of the documentation for transport.
• The ramp handling is responsible for the luggage. These luggage travel in containers, which makes loading and unloading faster. To evacuate them, electric elevators and ramps are used to facilitate the handling of the same, so they will appear on the delivery tape in the shortest possible time. They are also in charge of the stairs, the recharging of electrical systems, the refuelling of fuel, the evacuation of wastewater, the revision of the air conditioning systems, the cleaning of the cabin and the repair of any breakdown if any. By steps, let's say that the first thing is to disembark the passage so that you can access the cleaning service, as well as the incoming passage, will not be able to embark until the fuel is fully loaded.
• Also at these stops or stopovers, the catering is loaded, which is then offered and served in flight. These meals are precooked to later heat them in aircraft ovens.

When everything is ready, the agents proceed to board passengers through the planters (buses) or corridors (fingers) so that the plane can fly back to its next destination. Once the plane is ready and loaded, a tug called Push-back will be in charge of pushing the plane backward, to leave it ready and facing to start the race towards the runway.

Good flight!