One Provider, Several Plans: The Ground Handling Provider in Nested Aviation Emergency Response Arrangements

Abstract

When an aircraft accident or another serious emergency occurs at an airport, an independent ground handling provider may work under several emergency arrangements at once: the aerodrome emergency plan, the emergency response plans of the airlines it serves, its own plan and the emergency provisions of occupational health and safety law. This paper examines how public regulatory and guidance documents position the provider within these nested arrangements. A document analysis of 21 international, European, national and industry sources, recorded with their legal status and access level, was combined with research on interorganisational coordination in emergencies. Each document was coded for nine emergency functions, distinguishing explicit, implicit, not stated and not assessable provisions; only the third category was treated as evidence of absence. The European acceptable means of compliance and guidance material for ground handling organisations, issued in 2025, now address the provider directly: they require corporate and station level emergency response plans, coordination with aerodrome and aircraft operators, support for or substitution of the aircraft operator's plan, contact arrangements, training and testing. Precedence of aerodrome procedures is stated for listed operational aspects. In the documents reviewed in full, no provision was found on how a provider that serves several airlines should allocate staff and equipment committed to more than one plan, and functions such as passenger information, family assistance and dangerous goods information remain assigned to the airline without provisions on their performance through an agent. The paper argues that the main unresolved problem is the multiple commitment of the same resources, and that questions of authority must be separated into procedure, command, employer duty, delegated tasks and resource allocation. Implications for handling agreements, aerodrome plans and multiairline exercises are discussed.