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Aviation vocabulary · Airports & Ground Operations

Ground handling

Meaning in aviation, with examples

nounCommon term

In aviation, ground handling means: All the services an aircraft and its passengers need at the airport between landing and departure, such as check-in, baggage loading, cleaning and pushback.

In Turkish: yer hizmetleri, yer işletmesi hizmetleri

How it is used

Often provided by a separate company, called the 'handling agent' or 'handler'. Ramp agents, loaders and turnaround coordinators share the work. The services are listed in a ground handling agreement.

Example sentences

  1. Ground handling at this airport is slow, so we plan a longer turnaround.

  2. She started her career in ground handling as a ramp agent.

Common collocations

  • ground handling agent
  • ground handling services
  • ground handling staff
  • ground handling agreement
  • turnaroundThe process, and the time it takes, to prepare an aircraft for its next flight after it arrives: unloading, cleaning, catering, refuelling and boarding.
  • pushbackThe procedure in which a tug pushes an aircraft backwards out of its parking stand, because airliners do not normally reverse under their own power.
  • apronThe area of an airport where aircraft are parked, loaded, refuelled and boarded. It is separate from the runways and the taxiways.
  • standA marked parking position on the apron where an aircraft is parked for boarding, loading, refuelling and other ground services.

More terms: Airports & Ground Operations

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