excel handling Helps with Ground Handling for UEFA Euro Championships in Poland

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excel handling is a locally owned ground handling and flight support company that provides top tier, VIP support all across Poland. With headquarters and 24/7 operations center based in Warsaw, FBO’s in Warsaw WAW and Krakow KRK and with a robust network of aviation ground support professionals on every Polish airport, it is offering a wide range of services to suit the needs of its discerning clients. excel handling cares for hundreds of flights all across Poland every week – from the smallest of private business jets to the largest of military or cargo charters.

SLOTS distribution process for Polish Airports for GA flights is now open.  

excel handling is now able to apply for slots for flights to WAW WRO GDN and POZ during the UEFA Euro Championships in Poland. To effectively act with slots requests, it needs to have aircraft data: registration, type, seating capacity and flight schedule without any overnight stops. Due to limited ramp space on airports, only short turn arounds are available.

On the peak hours either above mentioned airports may be even closed for GA traffic. There are, however, alternate airports as per the diagram below. On all those airports excel has its agents and can provide top tier services.

Main Airport

Alternative Airport

GA Airport

GDANSK / EPGD / GDN

BYDGOSZCZ / EPBY / BZG

BYDGOSZCZ / EPBY / BZG

POZNAN / EPPO / POZ

ZIELONA GORA / EPZG / IEG

ZIELONA GORA / EPZG / IEG

WARSZAWA / EPWA / WAW

LODZ / EPLL / LCJ

MODLIN / EPMO / WMI

WROCLAW / EPWR / WRO

KATOWICE / EPKT / KTW

KATOWICE / EPKT / KTW

 

Time gaps on the match days as well as available parking spots are very limited now so Excel encourages operators to send their flight schedules as soon as possible.

Slot requests by general aviation operators must be made by the operator’s ground handling company at the relevant airport.

ATC flights plans will be compared with cleared airport slots. In the event of any discrepancies (e.g. a flight plan with no matching airport slot) and warning messages will be sent to the flight plan originator. Unresolved discrepancies may result in the suspension of the flight plan.

Limitation of ground times:

Due to heavy traffic expected following ground times are limited as follows:

Aircraft ICAO code B – max. 30min.

Aircraft ICAO code C – max. 45min.

Aircraft ICAO code D – max. 65min.

Aircraft ICAO code E – max. 90min.

Crew must stay on board during the ground time in order to ensure an efficient refueling procedure and the ability to change the parking stand upon Airport Operator request.

The limitations are not applicable to: team flights in relation to the EURO2012 event, aircraft operators that are home based at the relevant airport covered by these temporary procedures, and HOSP, SAR, HUM, EMER, HEAD flights. Details of such flights must be included in the „SI” field for the slot request. A team flight is a flight carrying players and their substitutes, the team trainer and his assistants, the team management, and orders directly linked to the respective team, where the flight is operating from the respective team camp to the city where the match takes place and vice versa. Flights carrying VIP’s, sponsors, management of the respective national soccer organization, spouses and relatives of the players are not considered as team flights. Team flights have to be clearly marked by the requesting carrier mentioning the team name in the „SI” field of the slot request. Requests for team flights will be crosschecked with UEFA.

In case of changing the type of aircraft, the aircraft operator is obliged to request a new airport slot.

All requests for ground times longer than the limited times must be made to the slot coordinator thru local handler in advance. Slot coordinator will liaise with the relevant Airport Operator for approval.

The airports covered by these temporary procedures must not be considered as alternative airports for diversions on the match days of EURO 2012 Championships.

Provision of Ground Handling in the airports covered by these temporary procedures:

Aircraft operators are obliged to contact with ground handling company in the designated airport at least one week before scheduled arrival to ensure that all necessary details for the operations are arranged and cleared including refueling.

Aircraft operators with parked aircraft and where  crew have left the aircraft for a period greater than 60 minutes should ensure that a representative is appointed with the authority and expertise to move the aircraft at short notice. Contact details should be provided to the ground handling company.

Additional information:

EPGD:

During the EURO 2012 match days passenger services for football fans will be also provided in hangar.

1. When ground handling is completed change of parking position expected. During parking period of the aircraft the stand may be blocked by other aircraft due to special parking scheme for EURO 2012.

EPPO:

Parking stands for GA/BA aircraft max category ”B” prepared on APRON 2 and APRON 3;

EPWA:

Aircraft which are granted permission to extend their stay at the airport above the time specified are instructed by ground handling agent about a possible change of parking position to a temporary stand after de-boarding and return the boarding parking position.

EPWR:

Aircraft operators are obliged to contact with ground handling company in the designated airport at least one week before scheduled arrival to ensure that all necessary details for the operations are arranged and cleared including refueling.

Which airports do you recommend for each venue - are there alternatives? And what are the ground transports links like from each airport to each stadium?

Every city that is going to host a match has access to an international airport that is located no more than 15 km from their downtown, so for obvious reasons that would be the airport that we are recommending. Due to restriction related to the Euro 2012 parking time will be limited on the match days so alternatives airport had to be designated. Therefore:

City:                      Main Airport:                                                                                   Alternative:                                       GA:

Gdansk:               EPGD – Lech Walesa Airport                                                     EPBY – Bydgoszcz                           EPBY – Bydgoszcz                               

Poznan:               EPPO – Poznan-Lawica Airport                                                 EPZG- Zielona Gora                        EPZG- Zielona Gora

Warsaw:              EPWA – Warsaw Chopin Airport                                              EPLL – Lodz                                       EPMO - Modlin

Wroclaw:            EPWR - Wroclaw Nicolaus Copernicus Airport                EPKT- Katowice                               EPKT- Katowice 

 

As for the ground transport links very much depend on the city and their decisions (few examples could have been witnessed during the match between Poland and Portugal hosted in Warsaw, when few streets and a bridge was closed for traffic). We ourselves can arrange transport for the passengers of flights that we handle and since we work with very experienced drivers we’ve never experienced any kind of complains, delays related to the ground transport of the passengers nor do we anticipate any during Euro 2012.

2. Do you think that airport slots and/or parking availability is going to be a problem at any of the airports?    

 There will be some inconveniences since most of the operation is planned in short time period before and right after the matches. Every airport is limited by the runway capacity therefore some passengers will have to wait awhile or arrive much earlier than planned; the same rule applies to the departures. For this moment though we are still able to book SLOTs as requested by the operators, but the SLOTs pool will eventually run out. Also limited parking time on the match days may also prove to be a problem. It forces operators to plan another ferry operation to the alternative / GA airport and back. This fact with the limited SLOTs pool may cause some delays. But if everything will be planned in advance I’m sure we’ll be able to avoid such a situation.

3. Do you have any estimates of how many private charter flights the event might attract?

Poland never hosted such an event but we expect that each game will generate additional traffic to main and alternate airport of approx. 80 movements.

We’re receiving new requests every day so it seems that we’ll have a pretty busy summer.

4. Will you be putting extra staff, facilities or services in place during the championships?

We began our preparation right after the announcement of Poland being the host of the Euro 2012. During our career we manage to establish very effective procedures that allow us to exceed expectation of our clients in almost every situation. Every employee of our company is a skilled, autonomous handling agent and we complement each other as a team. Therefore we see no need to change something that works perfectly fine, even when facing a challenge such as Euro 2012. The only new service that we’ve began to provide (which was if fact forced upon us) is a SLOT allocation service.

5. Do you think everything will run smoothly?  

There are still some worries and works still in progress, but we’re staying on top of all and as long as our company will be involved, we believe that none of our clients will experience any inconvenience during their transition from aircraft to the stadium and back.