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  • Ari Ketola

Greetings from GHI Americas Conference

This week Airport College International participated in the GHI Ground Handling International 7th Americas Conference, held in Punta Cana from 13 to 15 June 2023.


It was a great opportunity to meet our current and potential new clients in the event of more than 500 aviation professionals from airlines, ground handlers, airports, and other service providers from the Latin and North American markets.


Airport College International was one of the exhibitors that has its own stand for meetings and networking with conference participants.


Ari Ketola and Pertti Mero with Patricio Sepulveda, Founder and CEO of Aeronex Cargo / JetBlue Cargo

Here’s Our Takeaways from the Conference

The aviation industry in the Americas is experiencing a surge in demand for air travel, but it is also facing a skills crisis. There are concerns about whether the industry has enough manpower and efficient processes to handle the increased traffic. Participants in several panel sessions discussed strategies for recruitment, retention, service innovation, and collaboration within the supply chain to boost output without compromising safety or service quality.


Artificial intelligence (AI) is being explored as a solution to achieve operational excellence in ground handling. AI can eliminate errors, reduce downtime, and allow for the reassignment of employees to higher-skilled tasks.


Finding, training, and retaining skilled labour is a significant concern for the industry. Operators are adopting collaborative approaches to recruitment, training, and talent development to improve passenger satisfaction, on-time performance, and safety.


Self-check-in is considered the future of airport check-in, and advancements are being made in this area. A cost-effective solution is being presented, allowing existing hardware in airports without kiosks to be used for self-service check-in by connecting a QR code to printers at check-in counters.


Establishing a strong safety culture is crucial amidst the skills crisis, as inexperienced employees and leaders are joining the workforce due to capacity strains. Sessions will focus on building a robust safety culture through safety audits, SMS activities for SMEs, and learning from past incidents in the Americas.


The aviation industry aims to attract individuals from outside the aviation sector to join the workforce at airports. Many workers from various roles left during the pandemic and have not returned, making it essential to reach new audience segments.


Thank you – see you next time!


Face-to-face Meetings


Perhaps the most import takeaway was meeting current and potential clients and important stakeholders from the Latin and North American markets.


Thank to you all of you who we met and let's be in touch!

We welcome anyone who was not able to attend this time to contact us and meet us online.


We Are the Global Leader in Ground Handling eLearning


Our online courses are used in more than 140 countries around the world. Airport College International is proud to offer online eLearning courses in several languages to support your company training challenges.


We are actively looking for new clients and would like to provide you with our solutions for tackling industry-wide challenges.


Do You Want to Hear More


If you want to improve your company’s training related productivity today you can contact us right now, we know how this can be done.


Greetings from Punta Cana,

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