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Aviation glossary

Ground handling

Also: handling, ramp services, turnaround services

Airports

Services an aircraft receives on the ground between flights: passenger handling, baggage, cargo, fuel, cleaning, catering and pushback.

What it is

Ground handling covers passenger services (check-in, boarding, arrivals), ramp services (loading and unloading bags and containers, marshalling, ground power, pushback and de-icing), cargo and mail, fuelling, cleaning and catering. Some airlines handle themselves at their main bases, known as self-handling; others contract specialist companies, which in Europe have competed since an EU directive opened up the market in the 1990s.

The speed of ground handling determines how long an aircraft spends on the ground. Low-cost carriers flying narrow-bodies schedule turnarounds of around 25 to 30 minutes, whereas a wide-body on an intercontinental route may need two hours or more. To organise the work, the industry relies on standard contracts and manuals drawn up by IATA.

Related terms

ApronArea of an airport where aircraft park to board and disembark passengers, load cargo, refuel and receive line maintenance. PushbackThe manoeuvre in which a tug pushes an aircraft backwards away from the gate, since airliners do not normally reverse under their own power. ULDStandardised container or pallet in which baggage and freight are consolidated so they can be loaded onto an aircraft as a single unit. Low-cost carrierAirline built around keeping costs down to sell cheap fares: a single aircraft type, high aircraft utilisation, one cabin class and extras charged separately. TerminalAirport building where passengers check in, pass through controls, wait for their flight, board and collect their baggage on arrival.
Whole glossary

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Ground handling. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/ground-handling

MLA

“Ground handling.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/ground-handling. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Ground handling.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/ground-handling.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Ground handling. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/ground-handling (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_ground_handling,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Ground handling}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/ground-handling},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/ground-handling}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/ground-handling |title=Ground handling |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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