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The tasks and responsibilities of airline service operators are as vast as an airport is long and wide. They handle the loading and unloading of all passenger baggage and freight (animals, perishables) on and off aircraft that utilise airport facilities.
Airline service operators work as part of a team, generally a supervisor and three other airline service operators. Each member of the team has their own specific duties, which is necessary to ensure that the whole process runs smoothly in this busy work environment.
If It's Checked Off, It Can Be Checked In
Before a flight, airline service operators check a set of loading instructions to ensure that they know what should and shouldn't be loaded onto the aircraft. The last thing these operators want to do is mistakenly send someone's luggage to Switzerland, if it's meant to go to India.
Freight items need to be separated from general baggage by airline service operators and stored in special lockers as per the loading instructions. If any baggage or freight has been marked, 'contains dangerous goods' or 'requires special handling', airline service operators package or secure the item so that it isn't knocked or moved around easily, ensuring the freight arrives at its destination intact.
The baggage of passengers on a standby list can't be overlooked either. Their luggage is marked and kept in a holding unit until passengers have been confirmed on a flight.
Given The All Clear
Once all baggage and freight has been checked off and cleared for loading, airline service operators jump into the driver's seat of the small carts, or tugs as they're known, which are loaded up with all of the baggage, and then drive them to the aircraft. The loading staff utilise a number of specific pieces of tarmac equipment, from mobile conveyors for narrow bodied aircraft through to scissor lift loaders for wide bodied containerised aircraft.
Customer Service Key To A Job Well Done
Justin, a local airline service operator, says his role goes beyond baggage handling. He says that if you've ever flown on an aircraft, you may recall the pilot requesting that all passengers turn off their mobile phones. Sometimes this gets overlooked and the mobile is in the passenger's luggage that has been sent through for loading. It's then up to the airline service operators to locate the passenger and organise to have the phone deactivated.
After an aircraft has landed and all baggage and freight has been unloaded, airline service operators ensure that an aircraft's baggage and freight compartment is completely empty and in a clean state, in time for the turnaround of an aircraft.
If the baggage and freight needs to make a connecting flight, airline service operators unload it and then reload it.
Once the baggage reaches its final destination, it is transported to the baggage storing room of an airport. It's here that airline service operators check for any priority baggage and assign all baggage to the correct baggage carousal. They take note of any uncollected baggage and determine why it has not been collected.
Justin says airline service operators need to be able to cope with working in a high-pressurised environment where time is of the essence.
''You'll also need to be a bit of a problem solver. If a tug breaks down on the taxi way, then we still need to get the luggage onto the aircraft and also see to it that the tug gets red tagged and then fixed by maintenance,'' says Justin.
Excellent communication skills, good visualisation skills to be able to understand diagrams demonstrating the layout of an airport, sound literacy skills to be able to read and understand loading instructions and numeracy skills for interpreting weight specifications, are the necessary technical skills you'll come to rely on and need in this occupation.
Airline service operators undertake work indoors and outdoors and have to work shiftwork and on weekends and public holidays.
The starting salary is about $26,000 per year and this may go as high as $37,000, however, because these operators are often awarded penalty rates, their salary generally goes in excess of this top-end figure. For more accurate salary figures you can contact an airline directly or check out the Australian Government Workplace Authority website below.
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