TraumaDoc

It's being reported in the Jersey Evening Post that BA have switched their ground handling provider from local company Airline Services (who exist pretty much for BA only) to Swissport, with the likely resultant loss of most jobs at the firm.

The company was formed when BA pulled their own handling services from the island in 1996 and staff there set up AS as a 3rd party agency. They have provided front of house, operational and lounge services in Jersey since.

This is another example of BA going for the lowest common denominator with dedicated, experienced staff being cast aside for the sake of a few quid on each turnaround. Standby for another reduction in service.

Most of these faces will be familiar to the many of you who fly through JER regularly. Please give them your best wishes if you happen to do so soon.

jmd

This is an immensely sad development - the BA/Airline Services ground staff are a lovely bunch. Hopefully most of them will be re-employed by Swissport but it won’t be the same. Don’t Airline Services also run the lounge in JER? Hopefully that is on a contract with the airport rather than BA.

TraumaDoc

The lounge run by Airline Services, yes. The space is leased to them by the airport.

It’s the only lounge in Jersey and for some years has admitted Priority Pass guests etc. My guess is that it’s a bit of a money spinner and one of the assets that Swissport were happy to get their hands on.

mmogdan

Airline Services were fantastic and used to have full access to rebooking and rerouting if there was disruption or delays. I can only imagine Swissport will not care and you’ll be told to call BA.

Never Stansted

I suspect we can look forward to the unique local beers, ciders and spirits being ‘enhanced’ away from the lounge, which will probably end up as a Swissport Aspire lounge before long.

Im a new user

That is questionable from legal proposes. EU Regulation 261/2004 says that BA should offer two phone calls, so the customer is obviously not expected to have access to telecommunications or pay for roaming costs. Also, the customer may need those two phone calls for something else.

Potential stories:

1) I did not have a phone (or it had run out of battery) and BA would not offer rebooking at the airport. Please pay £5000 for these replacement flights that I had to book instead and also €600 for failure to offer rebooking.

2) I do not have a mobile phone, so I had to take a taxi to my home to call BA as BA wouldn't offer anything at the airport. Please pay for the taxi trip home and back to the airport. I note that the original cancellation was because of extraordinary circumstances, but BA's failure to offer assistance at the airport meant that my delay increased by five hours, so please pay €600 for failure to take all reasonable measures.

3) My flight back home was cancelled and no rebooking was offered at the airport. As I do not have a phone, I had to instead request rebooking by sending this letter to your office. I need to be rebooked so that I can return home. It is not possible to reach me by telecommunications until I return home and I may have to change hotels each day, but may be reached using the Poste Restante service. I will be staying in hotels at your expense until I'm rebooked. Please also pay me for the postage needed to send you this letter.

GumshoeW12

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GumshoeW12

Im a new user Does JER not have payphones?

Grace B

How awful!

I can only hope that such enhancements have not been implemented before I'm there in a few weeks time.

jmd

I note from local reporting that Airline Services have said that they will still have a presence at the airport (and that there will be jobs for some of the staff), but will not be involved in ground handling. I dare to hope that this means they may continue to operate the lounge. After all, as I understand it, Swissport have picked up the contract to provide handling services to BA in JER, which shouldn’t affect the lounge. May be false hope though…

Im a new user

Maybe, maybe not. Will the check-in staff be empowered to provide the passengers with enough 10p coins to be on hold for ten hours when calling BA?

camdentown

Exactly!!!
It should not be at the customers cost to communicate with BA in these circumstances.

RJD1983

Airline Services have been great representatives of BA in Jersey, over the decades. They have run their operation better than BA does at Heathrow, or Gatwick!

My guess is that as Airline Services only focus on BA, they didn't expand their operation to outside of Jersey, or other airlines, which didn't give them a cost advantage?

BLHD

Does the state of Jersey have TUPE regulations? If so, I'd expect the front line to be safe.

jmd

Jersey does have a TUPE equivalent, yes. However I don’t think it will make much direct difference here as Swissport are not acquiring Airline Services. I do hope you are right that Swissport will re-employ most if not all of the current AS staff. Amongst other things I don’t think the Swissport staff at JER are trained on FLY so they are going to need people who are.

I went through JER yesterday and told various members of the AS team that I was upset about what was happening and wished them all the best. They said that they are waiting to see how things turn out.