Airside explores the latest advancements in IATA’s enhanced GSE campaign and hears how these units can “add value”
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced at IGHC 2025 that from April this year, GSE fleet declarations will be mandatory at all ISAGO locations.
The move follows the introduction of the Enhanced GSE Recognition Program in 2024 and aims to incentivise adoption of equipment with anti-collision and inching technologies.
Monika Mejstrikova, director of ground operations at IATA, said at the conference: “Enhanced GSE comes with proximity sensors that prevent the equipment from damaging aircraft.
“The more we use enhanced GSE, the fewer incidents of ground damage to aircraft. It’s that simple, and it’s a cornerstone of the IATA Ground Damage Reduction Strategy.”
In aviation, safety is paramount – and ground handling companies pride themselves on their safety records.
It is important for these operators and their airline customers that the highest safety standards are met – and exceeded – to protect ramp workers and the aircraft on stand.
Collisions between ground support equipment and the aircraft they serve can total tens of thousands of dollars.
In March, Paris Orly Airport made headlines after a runway maintenance truck smashed into the rear of an easyJet A320.
According to The Sun, the incident could leave a bill of at least £100,000 (US$132,210).
‘Very rare’ incidents
These incidents are “very rare”, says ground handling expert Simon Miles of Miles Aviation Consultancy. But they do happen.
“When we train ground handling teams we do a lot on GSE and how to operate ground vehicles around the aircraft safely – there are strict protocols about how they need to do this,” Miles explains.
“And in fact, IATA requires brake checks when ground vehicles come within 5m of an aircraft for the precise reason of stopping collisions from happening.
“But it is very, very rare. Why? Because if you think about it, most people drive a car so they have a lot of road sense anyway.”
Miles says ground collisions usually occur due to something going wrong, such as a mechanical failure in the vehicle’s brakes.
The 2022 IATA Ground Damage Report found that the majority of ground damage incidents that occur when the aircraft is stationary are caused by motorised GSE striking the fuselage of the aircraft.
The study also found that belt loaders, cargo loaders, passenger stairs and boarding bridges account for 40% of all incidents.
IATA projects that the annual cost of ground damage could double to nearly $10 billion by 2035 “unless preventative action is taken” – such as adopting enhanced GSE.
According to IATA, transitioning 75% of the global fleet of belt loaders, cargo loaders, passenger stairs and boarding bridges to enhanced GSE could reduce the current expected ground damage cost per turn rate by 42%.
But these are very big numbers, says Miles: “The last number I remember seeing related to ground damage was in the millions, not billions – but in some ways that figure doesn’t surprise me.
“IATA now requires all GSE interfacing with the aircraft to have ground proximity sensors. Now that in itself just gives a warning and is not necessarily going to stop a collision happening, but [projects] an audible alert that says you’re too close…
“Ground handlers who are ISAGO accredited get checked for that because it is an IATA requirement – and either they will require to have that or require a plan to retrofit [those sensors].
“And to be fair most new GSE does have that – anything that interfaces with the aircraft, be it passenger steps or loading equipment. All these things are better than they were 10 years ago.”
Nevertheless, Miles says he takes IATA’s ground damage projections “with a pinch of salt”.
“[Ground damage] is an issue; it’s always been an issue. If IATA says it’s going up then obviously it’s got some decent data to back that up.
“Will it go up to the sort of proportions they’re talking about? I doubt it, particularly because if it does get to kind of epidemic levels the airlines will start doing something about it.”
Is enhanced GSE the solution?
According to Mejstrikova, speaking at IGHC 2025 in May, IATA has received 98 fleet declarations with 28 stations already recognised for maintaining high ratios of enhanced GSE since it launched the Enhanced GSE Recognition Program last year.
“Operators like Menzies, Celebi, Goldair, Swissport, Qatar Aviation Services and HACTL [some of whose stations are certified under the programme] are leading the way,” says Mejstrikova.
She adds that “adoption of enhanced GSE is not just a safety win – it’s a smarter way to manage risk”.
Now IATA has plans to expand the programme from current focus areas such as passenger stairs and belt loaders to include elevating equipment for passengers with reduced mobility and introduce additional recognition measures for ground handlers “making real strides in reducing ground damage”.
But what do handlers themselves have to say about enhanced GSE – and by extension the IATA programme?
Qatar Aviation Services’ Hamad International Airport base was certified under the Enhanced GSE Recognition Program in October last year.
The handler was an early advocate and adopter of anti-collision systems, according to vice president of engineering César González Fernández-Medina.
Speaking to Airside about the motivation behind joining the scheme, Fernández-Medina says: “QAS defines its position in the ground handling industry not as a big player compared some of the other companies who operate globally, but as an operator that would like to be ahead of the industry with regard to excellence, to be an early adopter of innovation and standards, working in this case with IATA as a pioneer in rolling out enhanced GSE.
“For us, the certification adds value because to be a leader in excellence and quality means to explore whatever is new in the field or whatever hasn’t been deployed yet. An additional incentive is recognition for what QAS has been doing for years.
“We have been adopting and embracing things that are now being covered with the IATA certification. It’s a way to show both internally and externally that we were going in the right direction when we first took up enhanced GSE.”
Fernández-Medina adds that Qatar Aviation Services had made investment decisions in enhanced GSE before IATA launched the programme because “these technologies are the last resort, the last barrier of defence against scenarios where aircraft damage might occur” during ground operations.
Elsewhere, Aviator Airport Alliance is a European ground handler that has adopted enhanced GSE and is working towards IATA certification. The company believes enhanced GSE improves the safety of ground operations by leveraging anti-collision systems and increases efficiency through aircraft inching technologies.
Aviator also says enhanced GSE reduces maintenance costs due to fewer accidents and less wear and tear – which the handler attributes to better reliability – as well as improved fleet management through the company’s ability to track key equipment performance and usage data.
Indre Petrauskiene, purchase manager at Aviator Airport Alliance, says: “We see enhanced GSE as an important way to improve safety, efficiency and precision. A part of our fleet has already been integrated with anti-collision systems and inching technologies. These features help prevent accidents, reduce downtime and make equipment easier to control, especially in busy areas.”
She adds that Aviator is moving towards certification under the Enhanced GSE Recognition Program to improve the safety and efficiency of its operations, as well as to support standardisation of ground support equipment across the industry.
Airlines’ requirements
The delivery of ground handling services is shifting due to airlines’ evolving requirements. One example of this is sustainable ground support equipment. As Aviator CEO Jo Alex Tanem told Airside’s sister title Airline Routes & Ground Services in January, “sustainability is a big, big factor” during negotiations with airlines.
The same can be said for enhanced GSE, according to Petrauskiene. She says: “Many of our airline customers are increasingly requesting enhanced GSE due to their own safety and sustainability goals.
“Airlines are looking for ground handlers who can deliver higher safety standards, operational efficiency, and contribute to reducing their overall environmental footprint. Enhanced GSE technologies meet these requirements, so they are becoming a key part of our service offering.”
Fernández-Medina adds that ground handlers’ rollout of enhanced GSE is increasingly important to airlines, who are “really worried about ground support equipment touching their aircraft” because “they cannot detect immediately before taking off that maybe there is damage”.
Initial investment costs
But while anti-collision and inching tools are increasingly becoming standard features for new ground support equipment, according to Petrauskiene, enhanced GSE adoption does not come without challenges. The primary concern for many handlers hoping to integrate these technologies within their GSE fleets is the cost.
Petrauskiene tells Airside the main challenge Aviator has faced in the rollout of enhanced GSE is the initial investment. And Fernández-Medina agrees: “This is why we need a kind of reward or compensation for adopting these sorts of things. They add complexity to the physical layout of our equipment – adding a new system that monitors sensors on the vehicles, controls the propulsion and so on.
“We as the ground handlers need to recover these investments somehow. At the end of the day, it’s good to adopt these things but we’re always talking about money. This is a business.
“The thought I would like to share with the industry is that all the players in the ground handling sector must reanalyse the risk [of ground damage] and create the space for us to invest in this technology. For example, insurance companies are saying, ‘Okay, you’re investing in anti-collision systems. Good for you. Next customer please.’
“We’re trying to say that the risk of damaging an aircraft is now being reduced heavily [by adopting anti-collision tools]. But the attitude of insurance companies is still, ‘Okay, thank you. This is your bill for this year.’”
“I think stakeholders must align and give us the space to invest in this technology because if we as ground handlers have tight margins we will be constrained at the end of the day. That’s my tagline: ‘César’s asking for a discount’.”
What is the IATA Enhanced GSE Recognition Program?
The Enhanced GSE Recognition Program is an industry programme for the validation of ground support equipment fleets.
“The programme drives accelerated transition to enhanced GSE (GSE fitted with anti-collision systems) by assessing and validating GSE fleet to conform with criteria set to reduce ground damage,” according to IATA’s website.
IATA says the benefits of certification include improved safety performance of ground handling service providers, ground damage risk reduction, fleet validation to industry standards, and recognition of achievement and display of validated fleet on the IATA platform.
The initiative started as a response to the trend of increasing ground damage, the association says.
“Aircraft ground damage is a significant issue as it can compromise the safety of passengers and airport personnel. It also has a high financial impact on airlines’ budgets and can seriously disrupt operations. One of the main causes of aircraft ground damage is ground support equipment (GSE) operations.
“The key GSE types causing ground damage are passenger stairs, ULD-loaders, and belt-loaders with belt-loaders causing the most severe damage.
“Our recent ground damage study estimates that the annual cost of ground damage could double to nearly $10 billion by 2035 unless preventive action is taken,” IATA warns.
The programme is based on validation of the ground handling service provider’s GSE fleet at a specific station. Upon successful validation, the GHSP is presented with a certificate and a recognition stamp, valid for 24 months, for that specific station.
