[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":321},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-en-easa-2028-aci-airport-performance":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":10,"date":293,"description":294,"extension":295,"meta":296,"navigation":297,"path":298,"seo":299,"seoTitle":300,"sources":301,"stem":317,"translationKey":318,"updated":319,"__hash__":320},"blog_en\u002Fblog\u002Feasa-2028-aci-airport-performance.md","EASA 2028 and ACI EUROPE: why airport performance management matters for regional airports too",{"name":7,"jobTitle":8,"sameAs":9},"Benjamin Ritschel","CEO","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fbenjamin-ritschel-7175273a\u002F",{"type":11,"value":12,"toc":282},"minimark",[13,26,29,34,48,54,88,94,100,104,121,127,153,162,166,169,178,182,185,188,217,220,224,227,230,234,237,269,272,276,279],[14,15,16,17,21,22,25],"p",{},"From 27 March 2028, new safety requirements for ground handling apply in the European Union ",[18,19],"src-ref",{"n":20},"3",". At the same time, ACI EUROPE calls for a fundamental shift in airport performance management: away from looking back at delays, towards actively managing the factors that determine punctuality and performance ",[18,23],{"n":24},"4",".",[14,27,28],{},"For regional airports this is a challenge. Expectations of transparency, collaboration and process quality are rising, while staff and budgets stay limited. So how can smaller airports make their operations more transparent and easier to steer, without launching a large IT project? The good news: getting started with data-driven performance management need be neither expensive nor complicated.",[30,31,33],"h2",{"id":32},"easa-2028-what-changes-in-ground-handling","EASA 2028: what changes in ground handling",[14,35,36,37,40,41,45,46,25],{},"With Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025\u002F20 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025\u002F23, the European Union creates a new framework for the safety of ground handling services. The first sets requirements for the organisations that provide these services, the second governs oversight by the competent authorities ",[18,38],{"n":39},"1,2",". Both apply from ",[42,43,44],"strong",{},"27 March 2028"," as a rule. Some points have other dates: the information security requirements apply only from 27 March 2031, and organisations can submit their declaration to the authority from 27 March 2027 ",[18,47],{"n":20},[14,49,50,51,25],{},"The key points include the following, as set out in EASA's consolidated version ",[18,52],{"n":53},"2",[55,56,57,64,70,76,82],"ul",{},[58,59,60,63],"li",{},[42,61,62],{},"Clear responsibilities:"," ground handling organisations define their responsibilities, procedures and interfaces in a traceable way.",[58,65,66,69],{},[42,67,68],{},"Standardised operations:"," operational activities rest on defined procedures and suitable organisational arrangements.",[58,71,72,75],{},[42,73,74],{},"Safety management:"," a safety management system identifies hazards, assesses risks and handles occurrences and deviations systematically.",[58,77,78,81],{},[42,79,80],{},"Coordination:"," the regulation also covers the coordination of turnaround activities. Collaboration between ground handlers, airport operators and airlines becomes even more important.",[58,83,84,87],{},[42,85,86],{},"Traceability:"," the implementation of procedures is documented appropriately and can be verified.",[14,89,90,91,93],{},"Which obligations apply depends on the role. The rules cover independent ground handling service providers, airlines that handle their own aircraft, and airport operators that provide ground handling services themselves ",[18,92],{"n":20},". For an airport operator, it therefore depends on whether it does its own handling.",[14,95,96,97,99],{},"The regulations prescribe neither GroundSync nor any other specific software for capturing turnaround times; EASA explicitly describes the rules as technology agnostic ",[18,98],{"n":20},". They do, however, raise the importance of clearly defined, verifiable operational processes.",[30,101,103],{"id":102},"aci-europe-managing-performance-not-just-measuring-delays","ACI EUROPE: managing performance, not just measuring delays",[14,105,106,107,111,112,115,116,118,119,25],{},"In November 2025, ACI EUROPE published two landmark documents: the ",[108,109,110],"em",{},"Airport Performance Position Paper"," and the ",[108,113,114],{},"Airport Operations Plan (AOP) Guidebook"," ",[18,117],{"n":24},". The central message: airports should not wait until a flight has left late to judge their performance. Instead of reactive indicators such as delays and on-time performance, they should manage the leading factors: gate and stand allocation, asset readiness, resource planning and process reliability. ACI EUROPE names the turnaround explicitly. Effective performance management needs a clear operational overview, particularly of how the schedule is being met through the aircraft turnaround processes ",[18,120],{"n":24},[14,122,123,124,25],{},"The guidebook describes four connected services for this ",[18,125],{"n":126},"5",[55,128,129,135,141,147],{},[58,130,131,134],{},[42,132,133],{},"Steer: set the targets."," Which process times, quality standards and indicators should be met? The partners at the airport agree on them together.",[58,136,137,140],{},[42,138,139],{},"Monitor: watch performance."," What is happening right now, measured against those targets, and where are deviations emerging? Everyone involved shares the same picture in real time.",[58,142,143,146],{},[42,144,145],{},"Manage: respond to deviations."," What is needed when an operation does not go to plan? Those involved decide together.",[58,148,149,152],{},[42,150,151],{},"Post-Operations Analysis: learn from the data."," What causes recurring deviations, and where can operations improve?",[14,154,155,156,158,159],{},"So far, an AOP is mandatory for 31 European airports under the Common Project 1 regulation. ACI EUROPE nevertheless considers it relevant for every airport, whatever its size: an AOP helps to use resources efficiently, which is crucial for smaller airports with limited staff and equipment ",[18,157],{"n":126},". The idea behind it therefore holds for small stations too: ",[42,160,161],{},"to improve your processes, you first need to know what actually happens.",[30,163,165],{"id":164},"the-problem-at-many-regional-airports-the-data-that-matters-is-missing","The problem at many regional airports: the data that matters is missing",[14,167,168],{},"Large airports often have extensive system landscapes for planning, control and analysis. At smaller airports, reality often looks different. Turnaround times are reported by radio, written into lists or recorded afterwards. Some milestones are in the AODB, but what happens between in-block and off-block often remains incompletely recorded.",[14,170,171,172,177],{},"When did deboarding start? When was loading complete? How long did fuelling take? Which process delayed the off-block? Without this information a delay can be noted, but its operational cause often stays unclear. That makes collaboration with airlines and ground handlers harder, and with it the review of service level agreements and the continuous improvement of processes. Our article on ",[173,174,176],"a",{"href":175},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcapturing-turnaround-times","capturing turnaround times"," compares the ways to record these times.",[30,179,181],{"id":180},"groundsync-operational-transparency-without-a-large-it-project","GroundSync: operational transparency without a large IT project",[14,183,184],{},"This is where GroundSync comes in. On the platform, airport, airline and ground handler capture, monitor and analyse their turnarounds together. Staff on the apron confirm each process step with one tap in the mobile app. Every confirmation carries the device time and the location. The result is verified & confirmed timestamps, available at once for monitoring and later for analysis. It becomes visible which processes run to plan, where deviations arise and which steps affect the turnaround.",[14,186,187],{},"GroundSync supports four tasks:",[189,190,191,197,205,211],"ol",{},[58,192,193,196],{},[42,194,195],{},"Standardise processes."," Turnaround workflows become templates with milestones, dependencies and planned times. Every process has a responsible partner and a tolerance budget.",[58,198,199,202,203,25],{},[42,200,201],{},"Monitor processes in real time."," The Live Sequence shows each turnaround as a timeline whose bars change colour live. The live dashboard shows on-time performance with an overall status in green, amber or red, much as the AOP guidebook describes monitoring ",[18,204],{"n":126},[58,206,207,210],{},[42,208,209],{},"Document services traceably."," Confirmed timestamps give airport, airline and ground handler a shared basis of data, and each partner sees what is shared with it, process by process. Services such as GPU, de-icing or PRM are recorded per turnaround with quantity and duration.",[58,212,213,216],{},[42,214,215],{},"Improve performance systematically."," Reports make process times, delays and recurring deviations measurable, down to the IATA delay codes, and a daily overrun report arrives by email every morning. That is the basis for operational improvement and for conversations about service quality.",[14,218,219],{},"GroundSync replaces neither a full AOP nor a safety management system. But the platform provides an important part of the operational data that data-driven performance management needs.",[30,221,223],{"id":222},"in-practice-groundsync-at-saarbrücken-airport","In practice: GroundSync at Saarbrücken Airport",[14,225,226],{},"Saarbrücken Airport shows that this approach suits smaller airports too. GroundSync has been in regular flight operations there since September 2026. Turnaround processes are captured digitally, and the timestamps are available for operational analysis. The rollout took a few weeks and needed no complex integration into the existing IT landscape.",[14,228,229],{},"The example shows that a regional airport does not need to launch an extensive digitalisation programme before it can capture its turnaround data systematically. It can start with selected processes and extend step by step.",[30,231,233],{"id":232},"start-small-measure-then-decide","Start small. Measure. Then decide.",[14,235,236],{},"For small and mid-sized airports, a pragmatic start in five steps works well:",[189,238,239,245,251,257,263],{},[58,240,241,244],{},[42,242,243],{},"Test case:"," selected turnarounds and process steps are captured digitally at one station.",[58,246,247,250],{},[42,248,249],{},"Pilot:"," over several weeks, a reliable basis of data on process times and deviations builds up.",[58,252,253,256],{},[42,254,255],{},"Joint review:"," the airport and its partners assess together where transparency and process quality can improve.",[58,258,259,262],{},[42,260,261],{},"Extension:"," further airlines, ground handlers, process chains or services join.",[58,264,265,268],{},[42,266,267],{},"Regular operation:"," ongoing measurement becomes a fixed part of operational performance management.",[14,270,271],{},"With GroundSync, setup usually takes two weeks. A free pilot month at your station follows, with no upfront investment. That way you judge the benefit on your own operational data before deciding on a wider rollout.",[30,273,275],{"id":274},"conclusion-airport-performance-management-starts-with-reliable-data","Conclusion: airport performance management starts with reliable data",[14,277,278],{},"EASA's new requirements and ACI EUROPE's recommendations pursue different goals. Together they underline how much clear processes, reliable information and good collaboration among everyone at the airport matter. Regional airports need solutions that fit their resources.",[14,280,281],{},"Not every performance project has to begin with a new system landscape. Often the most important first step is to make the actual operations at the aircraft visible. GroundSync makes exactly that start possible: fast, pragmatic and based on real turnaround data.",{"title":283,"searchDepth":284,"depth":284,"links":285},"",2,[286,287,288,289,290,291,292],{"id":32,"depth":284,"text":33},{"id":102,"depth":284,"text":103},{"id":164,"depth":284,"text":165},{"id":180,"depth":284,"text":181},{"id":222,"depth":284,"text":223},{"id":232,"depth":284,"text":233},{"id":274,"depth":284,"text":275},"2026-10-13","EASA 2028 and ACI EUROPE put operational transparency in focus. How regional airports capture reliable turnaround data without a large IT project.","md",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Feasa-2028-aci-airport-performance",{"title":5,"description":294},"EASA 2028 and ACI EUROPE for regional airports",[302,305,308,311,314],{"title":303,"url":304},"European Commission, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025\u002F20 on ground handling services and the organisations providing them (Official Journal of the EU, March 2025)","https:\u002F\u002Feur-lex.europa.eu\u002Feli\u002Freg_del\u002F2025\u002F20\u002Foj",{"title":306,"url":307},"EASA, Easy Access Rules for Ground Handling, Regulations (EU) 2025\u002F20 and 2025\u002F23 (November 2025)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.easa.europa.eu\u002Fen\u002Fdocument-library\u002Feasy-access-rules\u002Fonline-publications\u002Feasy-access-rules-ground-handling",{"title":309,"url":310},"EASA, EU Ground Handling Regulations: First steps towards implementation, webinar (June 2025)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.easa.europa.eu\u002Fen\u002Fdownloads\u002F142088\u002Fen",{"title":312,"url":313},"ACI EUROPE, Airports lead a new era of performance management with the passenger at the core, press release (November 2025)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aci-europe.org\u002Fmedia-room\u002F571-airports-lead-a-new-era-of-performance-management-with-the-passenger-at-the-core.html",{"title":315,"url":316},"ACI EUROPE, Airport Operations Plan: A Guidebook (November 2025)","https:\u002F\u002Faci-europe.org\u002Fcomponent\u002Fattachments\u002Fattachments.html?id=3663","blog\u002Feasa-2028-aci-airport-performance","easa-2028-aci-airport-performance",null,"jodCGKqhxM7bWWMf3YiQG63AbR6yic-25iMyigxvFuw",1791927714756]