ETF welcomes the Dutch government’s decision to award new ground handling concessions at Schiphol Airport to only three operators. By reducing the number of competing providers, Dutch authorities have chosen a model that prioritises operational stability, service quality and decent employment over relentless price competition. Unfortunately, the government failed to lay down agreements regarding self-handling, which would have made the reform even more positive.

Ground handling is one of the most safety-critical activities in aviation. Every aircraft turnaround depends on highly trained workers carrying out complex operations under strict time pressure. Yet the current market model has forced many operators into a race to offer the lowest price rather than the highest quality.

The negative consequences of liberalisation

For years, workers have warned that the liberalised ground handling market has produced exactly the opposite of what it had promised. Instead of creating a more efficient and resilient sector, excessive competition has driven down margins and encouraged cost-cutting, cascading down its impacts into the workforce through worsening working conditions, increasing workloads, reduced investment in training, higher operational instability, and poorer service quality.

The high staff turnover and the staggering labour shortages experienced across the industry are the predictable consequence of years of this deterioration of job and service quality. And workers are no longer alone in this claim: an increasing number of aviation stakeholders and regulators have been recognising how this evolution poses a fundamental threat to the sustainability of the whole aviation industry.

Limiting competitors while safeguarding workers’ rights

The Dutch government’s decision to limit the number of ground handling competitors responds to this increasingly obvious reality: aviation cannot deliver quality services when the business model is built around competing on labour costs. By limiting the number of operators while placing greater emphasis on quality and employment standards, it demonstrates that airports can strengthen both their operational performance and their workforce. This decision is all the more significant since Schiphol has been a champion of the race to the bottom in ground handling, striving for low tariffs for airlines at the expense of working conditions and safety culture.

Unfortunately, despite workers’ efforts, the government failed to lay down agreements regarding self-handling, which means that airlines will be able to organise their own ground handling operations at Schiphol, and there will be no maximum number of self-handlers.

Still, just as significant as the reduction in the number of operators is the commitment that workers will not pay the price for the transition. Employers and workers have agreed that the staff will be transferred to the successful providers while retaining their existing employment conditions. Furthermore, Schiphol has incorporated these conditions and compliance with the sectoral collective agreement into the requirements of the new tender.

This illustrates precisely the kind of socially responsible transition that ETF advocates for. Transitions must be supported by strong social dialogue, collective bargaining and safeguards that protect workers while strengthening the resilience of the sector.

As the Dutch trade union FNV states, the Dutch government’s change of course is a win for airport workers, who have campaigned for years to put an end to the race to the bottom in working conditions and service quality. In the short term, the implementation of the transfer agreement for workers raises some uncertainty and must be closely monitored. In the long term, less competition on labour conditions is expected.

Now Europe must follow

Now is the time for other airports to follow this example. Member States should have the possibility to organise ground handling markets in a way that prioritises quality, safety, resilience and quality jobs rather than simply maximising the number of competing providers.

To incentivise this shift, a future revision of the EU’s Ground Handling Directive must encourage the limitation of competitors while introducing social conditionalities in concession, tendering and transfer procedures.

A sound legislative framework for European ground handling must fully recognise the fundamental link between safety, resilience and quality jobs. European aviation cannot continue relying on a business model built around outsourcing and permanent cost-cutting.