Participants discussed the risks ground service equipment (GSE) presents to both operations and aerodromes. GSE has not evolved significantly over time and can stay in service for many years. Without a robust maintenance schedule, equipment may range from fully serviceable to completely unserviceable. Unserviceable GSE can pose risks such as injury to airside workers or damage to aircraft. The group also noted that unserviceable equipment is not always removed from operational areas. This can lead to service delays when ground handlers choose incorrect equipment or when it obstructs active ground operations.
What can operators do?
Organisations should apply their Safety Management System (SMS) to ensure that third-party contractors—such as ground handling agencies or GSE providers—safely support operations. This includes performance monitoring and assurance to ensure contractors meet minimum training, qualification, and performance standards set by the AOC.
Recommended practices include:
- safety managers working with commercial or contract managers to ensure that service level agreements and contracts include:
- clearly defined safety performance obligations
- acceptable and unacceptable safety behaviours.
- completing change risk assessments before entering new contracts or extending contracts with third party providers
- defining safety performance indicators and targets for third party contractors, for example, all staff completed SMS training
- conducting regular meetings – formal, ongoing, regular engagement with third party contractors to discuss safety performance
- ensuring third party staff can submit hazard/safety reports into your SMS
- considering safety performance as an equal metric to others (for example, financial) when engaging or reviewing contractors
- defining ongoing assurance and safety oversight of the third party contractor
- considering third party implications in management of change
- defining Emergency Response Plan obligations (where applicable)
- encouraging third party contractors to start their own SMS and allow integration between SMSs
- documenting all safety issues or risks of the organisation and third party contractors
- making both the organisation and third party contractors accessible for sharing and review to create shared ownership of safety risks and responsibility
- considering a safety promotion strategy that includes sharing safety risks and lessons learned with third party contractors to enhance and promote safety awareness. This also allows for monitoring safety culture in contractor organisations
- considering the level of prior training to recognise for both safety management and HF/NTS training
- applying this to commonly used third party contractors across multiple organisations.
What is CASA doing or has already delivered?
We have published a resource kit to develop your Safety Management System.
The resource supports organisations develop and start an SMS including the management of third party contractors.
We have also developed a 3rd edition of the SMS resource kit which has significant enhancements to guidance for third party contractors.
Advisory circular AC 119-01 helps organisations meet Part 119 of CASR requirements. It also provides examples of SMS processes. Examples include management of third party contractors suitable for organisations operating under SMS processes.
For references to third party contracted ground handling service providers, read part 121 operators to the ICAO guidance. The ICAO Manual on Ground Handling (Doc 10121) also includes guidance around the following:
- That an air operator should have a process for coordination with an external Fixed Base Operator Ground Service Provider. This ensures ongoing management of safety risks in operations done by the provider for the air operator.
- A Ground Service Provider should create and maintain an SMS that is commensurate to the size and complexity of the operation.