The Many Smaller Ones: Closing the Manual Gap in Ground Operations

IATA’s May 2026 assessment of ground handling is blunt: too many processes still rely on disconnected systems, manual inputs and delayed information. The counts behind it: more than 29,000 aircraft ground damage events and nearly 38,000 loading errors reported in 2025, while airlines that digitalised load control report loading-error reductions above 90 percent. This session works through the gap at ground level: the daily airside self-inspection, the equipment pre-use check, the damage report nobody wants to file. Each becomes a small app with timestamps, GPS, photos and signatures, and nobody changes how they work. It closes with a 30 day pilot method: one workflow, measured against your own numbers