Available airline seats in Asia have grown by 7% since 2011, forcing ground operators to deal with ebbing service quality and manpower shortages, aviation experts said yesterday at a conference in Bangkok.
Suiden: Manpower shortage harmful
Joseph Suiden, head of ground operations, airport passenger cargo and security at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said both airline and ground handling businesses are growing significantly in Asia as well as in other emerging regions.
Many airlines have been expanding their wings and increasing seats throughout Asia, with average growth rates of 7% annually since 2011, to cope with higher demand.
Many new airports are being built while a number of existing ones are being expanded. Thailand has 28 airports and around 20 of them are getting either renovation or expansion, but ground services are not much improved.
Mr Suiden said one major problem is a shortage of manpower working in ground handling as they are paid lower rates than in other businesses.
As a result, ground handling operators have very limited expertise to deal with ground handling services and improve standards. This problem is happening in most countries.
Secondly, the high pressure from heavy competition is forcing airlines and ground handling operators to focus on different aims.
"Airlines are reducing expenses and costs to survive, but ground services cannot lower their standards," Mr Suiden told the IATA Ground Handling Conference. "This is another challenge but airlines and ground operators are able to tackle the problems together."
Some countries, particularly in Africa, have granted monopoly power to single companies to handle ground services, furthering poor quality.
Arun Mishra, regional director for Asia and Pacific, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, said Southeast Asia needs more airports and better ground handling services for airlines.
"Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia need to have more airports for long term tourism and aviation growth," he said.