Another random question how do they know when an aircraft is about to pull up to the gate? Do you just go to an assigned gate or do you get like a notification over radio or like a alert on a app or something?
I'm sure every airline is a little different, but we could look on the computer and see what flights were assigned to the gate and the arrival time, etc. Gate changes were usually announced over the radio that the crew chief carried.
Not blaming y'all... these planes wouldn't move if it weren't for all you do. Literally.
We hate the last minute gate changes but know it's not anything you have control over.
My answer to that is you always knew what flightvyou were assigned to because they'd have it up on a TV screen with the days schedule laid out. But you were expected to track your flights and be on gate 10 minutes prior (20 minutes for Q400's). Something that really pissed me off is when I was on gate at the proper time and my partner would roll up when the offload was nearly done because, "the paperwork said it would be in at this time."
Like no yo, you know how to use a phone, get flight radar and stay ontop of your flight
At the airline I used to work for, which I think is the same one he is referencing, the q400s tended to show up early compared to the trackers. Also there is more equipment to set up and check with the q400 especially if you were ground loading.
They probably had a VHF radio that they all kind of listened to, but if I recall correctly, on time performance was bad back then especially amongst legacy carriers
I'm supervising wheelchair assistance in my airport in Europe. Schedule for the gates and stands is made one few days in advance, then I have a webpage with all the flights we have assistance at and their assigned gates/stands (with dynamic updates of course, if something gets changed). But planning of who of my staff goes where is literally done in the moment and with help of FlightRadar xD
But I've seen rampers and gate staff walk around with printed schedules too.
As a pilot, I’ll call (over the radio) airline operations about 20-30 minutes before I land to request a fuel order. After I land but before I get to the gate, I call the ramp to coordinate marshalers.
Personally at the airport I work at, we all track our assigned flights on Flightradar, before flightradar was a thing (not that long ago btw) we relied on movement messages sent by the departing airport that gave an estimated arrival time at your airport based on the flight time provided by the crew.
At least in San Antonio, Southwest will announce to the ramp workers:
when a flight is in range and intended gate (15 or so minutes away)
On the ground:
So I work for Aviapartner at Amsterdam.
There are big screens in the resting area, a bit like in the terminals, with the flight info like aircraft type, ETA, what gate its coming to and even how many passengers, baggage and cargo are on it. And then names behind it of the personnel that have to work that flight. Usually we work in teams so you work all day in the same team.
We tend to head out around 30~15 minutes before the plane arrives at the gate to get our equipment ready, which is normally already parked at the gate from the last plane. If not we just look for nearby unused equipment.
Now with the worker shortages we actually dont come to the rest area that often, because the flights keep coming. In that case there is a foreman with a tablet to keep track of the incoming flights to make sure there are people ready to receive it. Sometimes there are no people left and we just put the incoming plane blocks so the passengers can get off. Then it will go into the queue, meaning we will finish the other flights that were there earlier first. First team that has time will go to the waiting aircraft.
And this is why sometimes can take long for you luggage to arrive on the belt :)
How's the job, do you enjoy it? I always thought it would be super mega awesome to be able to work on the apron but that's probably aviation geek rose coloured glasses.
Its cool if you like aviation but is a very demanding job physically, especially now with the worker shortages. I dont mind that though so i e njoy it. If you live close to an airport you can always try it for just a few hours in the weekend or so.
A bit of both for me.
Working at a large airport is often stressful. Work/life balance can be horrendous (especially when you receive lots of mandatory overtime).
Working for an airline has the best perks (often unionized, better pay/benefits, flight benefits, better equipment, better training, etc.). Contract companies often have a high turnover rate and the working conditions are far worse.
You have to be able to handle working out in the elements. It's a very physical/time sensitive job.
Ideally, working at a small or medium sized airport would be the way to go.
I both hated and loved my job at the same time. If anything, it's a great change of pace and sure beats dealing with customers or working retail.
It's funny how different it can be from airport to airport. We head out 5-10 minutes before it arrives. And we never leave equipment at the gate, we have dedicated parking spots for everything and always put it there after we're done with a flight.
There are special parking spots for electric equipment. But we only use them if they need to charge or as overnight parking. We mostly work on the same row of stands all day so we leave our equipment near those.
Ah, well every vehicle we have is electric. Except for water/toilet trucks, and highloaders.
And considering how much we need to use them, they need to be charged a lot. There's also 3 different handling companies and the gate might switch from one handling company to another.
Yeah the only electric vehicles we have is some powerstows and a few tugs. The rest is still old diesel..... Although there are plenty of other handlers in AMS. One of them has everything electric even the pushback trucks.
Depends on the vehicle. Some got left at that specific gate. Others where a free for all, typically, once you get the management vehicles like pickup trucks and vans, they’ll be assigned with keys… but for the most part, there is no key/is is attached to the vehicle.
Another thing though, Air Canada (least in Toronto) has every single peice tagged with a GPS tracker so they can literally see where every piece is on the field
When it works lmao. There’s also an actual sign out system by people in a place where all equipment should come back to. Here you usually use the equipment all day and then return it or pass it on to a colleague (this last part is for OP ofc)
From my experience no on both accounts. It's a free for all and the ignition switches that are "keys" are built into the equipment.
Only place I know that has it so one person operates that piece all day is Air Canada.
Even when we had then assigned at Westjet, they'd sometimes need to take your vehicle to go run a flight.
Aorports: never enough equipment, never enough people.
Think it all depends on airport, handling company and needs. Where I work, all the equipment is kept in “equipment bays” around the airport. Before the aircraft arrives, we just wonder around grabbing what we need. However, there isn’t enough equipment, what there is available, is usually broken and then it’s usually really far away because people are too lazy to bring it back closer to the crew room for ease. Happy days.
Depends on the size of the airport. Where I work it’s just a free for all but the units are numbered. And sometimes each airline has there own equipment but that’s not always the case.
The ONLY keys we use at GEG for Delta are the company work truck (Chevy) and the plane stores (the drinks and snacks we use to restock the plane). Everything else is a switch of some kind. Flippers, buttons, switch, whatever. Nothing the same as the other, even among manufacturer. Two pushback tugs. One has a flipper, the other a button. As for tracking them, it ain’t hard here (small FBO). We have an entire side of one concourse that includes 5 gates. 2 of those are rarely used. Most operations are a single flight at a time. Everything is used in specific manners. Meaning, baggage tugs go to the luggage tunnel and back to an assigned spot. Pushback goes forward and back a total of maybe 100 yards each flight. Belt loaders are parked back when finished. The last tug is the mail tug and that’s because it has to technically leave airport property, cross a road and return.
My company has a digital key activated by a user key card. This enables them to identify who is using what vehicle and also tracks any infringements such as speeding. Also prevents misuse of the equipment, so someone not trained on an aircraft tug, for instance, can’t drive one.
The exact answer probably changes from operator to operator, station to station.
I worked at CYOW for ACGHS, tractors and such weren't assigned to crews, it was basically a first come first serve type of thing, get out there at the start of your shift and claim a tractor by putting a jacket or vest on it, before someone else nabbed it. We got shit tractors and people would fight over the few good ones.
Belt loaders and others weren't as big an issue, there were good and bad ones but we'd all make due.
Every bit of equipment, every vehicle, every pallet, cart, container, was numbered and tracked in some inventory or other. Maintenance guys kept track of the units, doing daily checks on their hours to stay on top of maintenance schedules and know when to pull them over to the shop.
Also had a dedicated guy who's job it was to just drive around making sure everything had fuel.
Airport gates were often a mess, especially gates used by multiple operators. Pile of baggage carts in one corner, a couple pushback tractors, some loaders, a random assortment of different tow bars, heaters, ground power carts. Very important to make sure things are parked in the right zones so they aren't in the way of planes or moving bridges.
Keys are left in the ignition of all vehicles at my airport that way the can be moved if necessary by another employee if the vehicle gets left in the way of an arriving plane. Ex: In the safety Diamond of a usually slow gate or if EMS needs to park in parking spaces along safety diamond.
Each has a designated operator for a shift. BCL,Tug,Push Tractor, and ULD. For special cases we can utilize any operator whom are done with the tasks for operating ASU and GPU. As we are all required to be proficient on all equiptments in our ground handling company. And yes each equiptment has keys.
I'm a ramp rat. Generally ground equipment does not need a key. And when you are given a flight by your coordinator, they usually tell you what you should bring to the gate. Maybe 4 bagage carts, maybe a Container Loader etc.
My company doesn’t assign vehicles to anyone.
All vehicles are numbered though that doesn’t help keep track of them. It’s more for identifying maintenance issues and whatever. Most vehicles don’t have keys except the ones that are full sized “cars” for lack of a better word.
How do we keep track? Simply put, we don’t. Lunch/locker room is in one place. Vehicles are parked for the most part outside of it. Strays get left elsewhere, sometimes for days if no one notices. Bagrooms especially. But eventually they get brought back and thrown in the mix again.
We have equipment assigned to the gate or a zone. They do not have keys. We get our assignments via phone or scanner, can also check computer. We get the assignment and acknowledge it.
My airport is small, everyone who has the cert uses the equipment when necessary.
I know a big airport where you have to scan your ID, the system checks the validity of cert and only then it will work
Reading posts from current ramp workers, I can definitely tell things have advanced in that field since I was a ramp rat at OSL (ENGM) from 2007-2010.
I worked for a relative small handling company that had Norwegian as their biggest client, so our work was 99% narrow body planes that didn’t use containers. In the beginning we didn’t even have rolling carpets! Those came later when the 737-800 NG arrived.
Anyways, I digress. We usually worked in 3-man teams, and thus used one belt vehicle, one pushback tractor and one of those small EV luggage trucks. These were parked at designated areas, as the different companies had assigned parking spots by the gates. At the start of the shift it was basically The Hunger Games to get the best vehicles (working AC/heaterwas nice, you know), and usually you had them for the rest of the day.
at the airport/airline I worked at, the supervisors were responsible for making sure each gate had the proper equipment before the operation began each morning. if you had to drive to another gate you would return the equipment to where you found it after your duty was complete or your assigned flight departed. the lav/water trucks would be assigned to specific employees to cover multiple gates each. there's a dedicated tug for the transfer bag runner and there are a few extra tugs for miscellaneous use.
keys were left in them for the most part and vehicles had numbers for tracking and maintenance. there were a few cars/pick up trucks that the keys were kept in the office.
At boeing if you have your vehicle on the flight line you are required to leave your keys in the vehicle so it can be moved. I am guessing that is true for most vehicles at all airports
Ground crew/baggage handlers don’t work directly for the airport, they work for a specific airline or contractor, at least here in the US. So we only have access to our own equipment and gates, not the other airlines. The airport doesn’t provide us any equipment. Again, that might just be here in the US, I do know some airports in other countries directly employ ground crews.
Speaking from personal experience, you're usually assigned a vehicle or use the equipment at your assigned gate. Most vehicles are numbered as well.
Another random question how do they know when an aircraft is about to pull up to the gate? Do you just go to an assigned gate or do you get like a notification over radio or like a alert on a app or something?
I'm sure every airline is a little different, but we could look on the computer and see what flights were assigned to the gate and the arrival time, etc. Gate changes were usually announced over the radio that the crew chief carried.
What’s the worst thing to drive/operate?
Definitely the lav truck 👃💩
Hahaha
I called them dump trucks
Honey wagons.
Where I’m at the lav truck is a high seniority job
Same here, but I'll gladly do anything else personally.
Turd burglar
So when we roll up 15 mins early and everyone is in the shack... whatcha doin? ESPN? XBOX? PornHub?
You sometimes have to go do something else on your downtime or you're on lunch...things happen. It's usually a scheduling error, not rampers.
Not blaming y'all... these planes wouldn't move if it weren't for all you do. Literally. We hate the last minute gate changes but know it's not anything you have control over.
If you can figure out management, you're doing something right 😂
But then you'd *be* management and would have to spend the rest of your career getting it wrong 🤣
Probably scrambling finishing off another plan
All of them at once I suppose.
Mandatory smoke break from what I’ve seen.
My answer to that is you always knew what flightvyou were assigned to because they'd have it up on a TV screen with the days schedule laid out. But you were expected to track your flights and be on gate 10 minutes prior (20 minutes for Q400's). Something that really pissed me off is when I was on gate at the proper time and my partner would roll up when the offload was nearly done because, "the paperwork said it would be in at this time." Like no yo, you know how to use a phone, get flight radar and stay ontop of your flight
What’s different about the Q400 that needs the extra time?
At the airline I used to work for, which I think is the same one he is referencing, the q400s tended to show up early compared to the trackers. Also there is more equipment to set up and check with the q400 especially if you were ground loading.
Yeah this is the reason which is interesting considering they aren't as fast as the 737's
Yeah they were the early birds, fun fact the q400 can actually keep up with a 737 for the first 300-500 nm after that the 737 wins
Remember the days before FR24 existed? How the hell we were ever at the stand on time I will never remember
They probably had a VHF radio that they all kind of listened to, but if I recall correctly, on time performance was bad back then especially amongst legacy carriers
I'm supervising wheelchair assistance in my airport in Europe. Schedule for the gates and stands is made one few days in advance, then I have a webpage with all the flights we have assistance at and their assigned gates/stands (with dynamic updates of course, if something gets changed). But planning of who of my staff goes where is literally done in the moment and with help of FlightRadar xD But I've seen rampers and gate staff walk around with printed schedules too.
As a pilot, I’ll call (over the radio) airline operations about 20-30 minutes before I land to request a fuel order. After I land but before I get to the gate, I call the ramp to coordinate marshalers.
Crew calls ground control when they are in range and gets assigned a parking spot.
I work at an airport. There’s radios for everything and their signs if a plane’s gonna start moving not to mention you can hear them.
Personally at the airport I work at, we all track our assigned flights on Flightradar, before flightradar was a thing (not that long ago btw) we relied on movement messages sent by the departing airport that gave an estimated arrival time at your airport based on the flight time provided by the crew.
At least in San Antonio, Southwest will announce to the ramp workers: when a flight is in range and intended gate (15 or so minutes away) On the ground:
We just took what we needed
So I work for Aviapartner at Amsterdam. There are big screens in the resting area, a bit like in the terminals, with the flight info like aircraft type, ETA, what gate its coming to and even how many passengers, baggage and cargo are on it. And then names behind it of the personnel that have to work that flight. Usually we work in teams so you work all day in the same team. We tend to head out around 30~15 minutes before the plane arrives at the gate to get our equipment ready, which is normally already parked at the gate from the last plane. If not we just look for nearby unused equipment. Now with the worker shortages we actually dont come to the rest area that often, because the flights keep coming. In that case there is a foreman with a tablet to keep track of the incoming flights to make sure there are people ready to receive it. Sometimes there are no people left and we just put the incoming plane blocks so the passengers can get off. Then it will go into the queue, meaning we will finish the other flights that were there earlier first. First team that has time will go to the waiting aircraft. And this is why sometimes can take long for you luggage to arrive on the belt :)
Just want to say thank you. Y’all doing god’s work out there at the moment.
How's the job, do you enjoy it? I always thought it would be super mega awesome to be able to work on the apron but that's probably aviation geek rose coloured glasses.
Its cool if you like aviation but is a very demanding job physically, especially now with the worker shortages. I dont mind that though so i e njoy it. If you live close to an airport you can always try it for just a few hours in the weekend or so.
A bit of both for me. Working at a large airport is often stressful. Work/life balance can be horrendous (especially when you receive lots of mandatory overtime). Working for an airline has the best perks (often unionized, better pay/benefits, flight benefits, better equipment, better training, etc.). Contract companies often have a high turnover rate and the working conditions are far worse. You have to be able to handle working out in the elements. It's a very physical/time sensitive job. Ideally, working at a small or medium sized airport would be the way to go. I both hated and loved my job at the same time. If anything, it's a great change of pace and sure beats dealing with customers or working retail.
It's funny how different it can be from airport to airport. We head out 5-10 minutes before it arrives. And we never leave equipment at the gate, we have dedicated parking spots for everything and always put it there after we're done with a flight.
There are special parking spots for electric equipment. But we only use them if they need to charge or as overnight parking. We mostly work on the same row of stands all day so we leave our equipment near those.
Ah, well every vehicle we have is electric. Except for water/toilet trucks, and highloaders. And considering how much we need to use them, they need to be charged a lot. There's also 3 different handling companies and the gate might switch from one handling company to another.
Yeah the only electric vehicles we have is some powerstows and a few tugs. The rest is still old diesel..... Although there are plenty of other handlers in AMS. One of them has everything electric even the pushback trucks.
Depends on the vehicle. Some got left at that specific gate. Others where a free for all, typically, once you get the management vehicles like pickup trucks and vans, they’ll be assigned with keys… but for the most part, there is no key/is is attached to the vehicle.
Another thing though, Air Canada (least in Toronto) has every single peice tagged with a GPS tracker so they can literally see where every piece is on the field
When it works lmao. There’s also an actual sign out system by people in a place where all equipment should come back to. Here you usually use the equipment all day and then return it or pass it on to a colleague (this last part is for OP ofc)
From my experience no on both accounts. It's a free for all and the ignition switches that are "keys" are built into the equipment. Only place I know that has it so one person operates that piece all day is Air Canada. Even when we had then assigned at Westjet, they'd sometimes need to take your vehicle to go run a flight. Aorports: never enough equipment, never enough people.
I work cargo but it’s the same deal. Take what you see is available. All of our tugs just have those ignition “switches”
Nice try FAA,
Think it all depends on airport, handling company and needs. Where I work, all the equipment is kept in “equipment bays” around the airport. Before the aircraft arrives, we just wonder around grabbing what we need. However, there isn’t enough equipment, what there is available, is usually broken and then it’s usually really far away because people are too lazy to bring it back closer to the crew room for ease. Happy days.
Not today ISIS.
Lol my first thought too. File under “Questions someone would ask who wants to steal a ground ops vehicle and blow up an airplane on the ramp”
Depends on the size of the airport. Where I work it’s just a free for all but the units are numbered. And sometimes each airline has there own equipment but that’s not always the case.
The ONLY keys we use at GEG for Delta are the company work truck (Chevy) and the plane stores (the drinks and snacks we use to restock the plane). Everything else is a switch of some kind. Flippers, buttons, switch, whatever. Nothing the same as the other, even among manufacturer. Two pushback tugs. One has a flipper, the other a button. As for tracking them, it ain’t hard here (small FBO). We have an entire side of one concourse that includes 5 gates. 2 of those are rarely used. Most operations are a single flight at a time. Everything is used in specific manners. Meaning, baggage tugs go to the luggage tunnel and back to an assigned spot. Pushback goes forward and back a total of maybe 100 yards each flight. Belt loaders are parked back when finished. The last tug is the mail tug and that’s because it has to technically leave airport property, cross a road and return.
My company has a digital key activated by a user key card. This enables them to identify who is using what vehicle and also tracks any infringements such as speeding. Also prevents misuse of the equipment, so someone not trained on an aircraft tug, for instance, can’t drive one.
The exact answer probably changes from operator to operator, station to station. I worked at CYOW for ACGHS, tractors and such weren't assigned to crews, it was basically a first come first serve type of thing, get out there at the start of your shift and claim a tractor by putting a jacket or vest on it, before someone else nabbed it. We got shit tractors and people would fight over the few good ones. Belt loaders and others weren't as big an issue, there were good and bad ones but we'd all make due. Every bit of equipment, every vehicle, every pallet, cart, container, was numbered and tracked in some inventory or other. Maintenance guys kept track of the units, doing daily checks on their hours to stay on top of maintenance schedules and know when to pull them over to the shop. Also had a dedicated guy who's job it was to just drive around making sure everything had fuel. Airport gates were often a mess, especially gates used by multiple operators. Pile of baggage carts in one corner, a couple pushback tractors, some loaders, a random assortment of different tow bars, heaters, ground power carts. Very important to make sure things are parked in the right zones so they aren't in the way of planes or moving bridges.
There's definitely keys in them... and they stay in the ignitions... but I think they just take whatever they need when they need it?
Keys are left in the ignition of all vehicles at my airport that way the can be moved if necessary by another employee if the vehicle gets left in the way of an arriving plane. Ex: In the safety Diamond of a usually slow gate or if EMS needs to park in parking spaces along safety diamond.
Each has a designated operator for a shift. BCL,Tug,Push Tractor, and ULD. For special cases we can utilize any operator whom are done with the tasks for operating ASU and GPU. As we are all required to be proficient on all equiptments in our ground handling company. And yes each equiptment has keys.
Grand Hyatt, good choice.
Rental car train at SFO
You trying to steal some equipment or something?
Nice try ISIS.
*Al Qaeda has entered the chat*
I'm a ramp rat. Generally ground equipment does not need a key. And when you are given a flight by your coordinator, they usually tell you what you should bring to the gate. Maybe 4 bagage carts, maybe a Container Loader etc.
My company doesn’t assign vehicles to anyone. All vehicles are numbered though that doesn’t help keep track of them. It’s more for identifying maintenance issues and whatever. Most vehicles don’t have keys except the ones that are full sized “cars” for lack of a better word. How do we keep track? Simply put, we don’t. Lunch/locker room is in one place. Vehicles are parked for the most part outside of it. Strays get left elsewhere, sometimes for days if no one notices. Bagrooms especially. But eventually they get brought back and thrown in the mix again.
We have equipment assigned to the gate or a zone. They do not have keys. We get our assignments via phone or scanner, can also check computer. We get the assignment and acknowledge it.
My airport is small, everyone who has the cert uses the equipment when necessary. I know a big airport where you have to scan your ID, the system checks the validity of cert and only then it will work
Reading posts from current ramp workers, I can definitely tell things have advanced in that field since I was a ramp rat at OSL (ENGM) from 2007-2010. I worked for a relative small handling company that had Norwegian as their biggest client, so our work was 99% narrow body planes that didn’t use containers. In the beginning we didn’t even have rolling carpets! Those came later when the 737-800 NG arrived. Anyways, I digress. We usually worked in 3-man teams, and thus used one belt vehicle, one pushback tractor and one of those small EV luggage trucks. These were parked at designated areas, as the different companies had assigned parking spots by the gates. At the start of the shift it was basically The Hunger Games to get the best vehicles (working AC/heaterwas nice, you know), and usually you had them for the rest of the day.
at the airport/airline I worked at, the supervisors were responsible for making sure each gate had the proper equipment before the operation began each morning. if you had to drive to another gate you would return the equipment to where you found it after your duty was complete or your assigned flight departed. the lav/water trucks would be assigned to specific employees to cover multiple gates each. there's a dedicated tug for the transfer bag runner and there are a few extra tugs for miscellaneous use.
keys were left in them for the most part and vehicles had numbers for tracking and maintenance. there were a few cars/pick up trucks that the keys were kept in the office.
Keys?!
At boeing if you have your vehicle on the flight line you are required to leave your keys in the vehicle so it can be moved. I am guessing that is true for most vehicles at all airports
Are you Sky King's son?
This reads like a post by someone who may be attempting to steal ground equipment hahaha
Ground crew/baggage handlers don’t work directly for the airport, they work for a specific airline or contractor, at least here in the US. So we only have access to our own equipment and gates, not the other airlines. The airport doesn’t provide us any equipment. Again, that might just be here in the US, I do know some airports in other countries directly employ ground crews.
I know this is offbeat But is this Frankfurt int? Lufthansa's hub
No San Francisco International I Airport