A descriptive research on the issues of the operations department at airport ground handling organizations

Airports ground handling companies have a very important function in the preparation of the aircraft and making it ready for flight in the period between the arrival and departure of the aircraft. While performing this function, it is necessary to make some calculations including the weights and balance of the aircraft and also to ensure cooperation with many different departments and stakeholders. The operations department is responsible for doing these calculations and coordinating the work done by all stakeholders. Due to the coordination task which is a necessity in terms of financial and safety, the success of the department affects the success of not only the institution to which it belongs but the entire ground handling operation. The purpose of this research is to identify problems regarding the operations department in ground handling companies and to propose solutions to these problems. Qualitative research method was used in the study and semi-structured interview method was used as a data collection tool. In this context, people who worked in the operations department or who worked in the past were interviewed and, in this way, qualitative data were collected. Collected data were analyzed in accordance with the inductive method and interpreted by reaching the codes, categories and themes. The results of the research were collected under the themes of problems encountered in operation processes, problems caused by management mentality, problems caused by personnel and human resources practices and problems caused by trainings. Each of the themes and categories were explained and the suggestions of solutions were brought to the problems by evaluating the relations of the categories with each other. Key words: Ground Handling, Airport Ground Operation, Civil Aviation