An exploratory study of the effects of airline and airport policy : including locational, political, and cultural factors on international airliner ground support activities

The choices faced by each air carrier as to how ground support activities should be performed are subject to both internal company policy and external environmental factors. In spite of the complexity of this decisionmaking environment, each carrier must ultimately determine a ground handling process which takes these factors in to consideration. In order to make an effective decision in any given ground services situation, the carrier needs to be aware of the crucial factors which may influence and/or constrain its options. It is the purpose of this study to identify and examine those crucial impacts and influences of the international operating environment which affect the airline ground handling decision.

The results of the study show that international airlines are severely impaired by ground handling monopolies, be they airport companies or national airlines. Preferential treatment of the host countries' airlines is widespread. Additional limiting factors were uncovered in the geographical, political, and cultural areas, where wide differences exist worldwide. The current blight of commercial aviation as a result of the worldwide recession has accentuated the problem as nations turn to mercantilistic methods to protect their own airlines.

Airlines continue to strive for additional freedom in ground handling their own aircraft, but the results have so far been discouraging. As a result, the airlines have largely resorted to compromise, trying to make the best of a situation which they cannot control. Given the confrontation of privately-owned versus state-owned carriers, and the absence of international agreements, a resolution of this problem in the near future appears highly unlikely.