Course plan for Basics of Passenger Services Aku Pekkarinen & Iina Vitikainen Master’s thesis Degree Programme in Aviation Business 28 April 2020 Abstract 28 April 2020 Author(s) Aku Pekkarinen Iina Vitikainen Degree programme Master’s degree in Aviation Business Report/thesis title Number of pages Course plan for Basics of Passenger Services and appendix pages 119+14 Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, the airline industry was growing at a high pace, and the industry has been struggling to find enough talented and motivated long-term employees to work in the field. It is likely that the same challenge still needs to be tackled once the indus- try gets back on its feet. Ground handling, a crucial part of the aviation industry, also strug- gles with this problem. There is a high need to find more motivated and skilled people to work especially in the passenger service sector, where the employees assist passengers throughout their journey at an airport: all the way from check-in to boarding and finally in arrival services upon the arrival. The strict rules and regulations of the industry, as well as demanding customer encounters in a hectic terminal atmosphere, demand these passen- ger service employees to have a great set of skills, competencies and qualifications. To decrease the impact of the talent gap, cooperation between educational institutions and the industry stakeholders plays a key role. That´s why a course plan for a course called Basics of Passenger services was created for Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the course is to provide bachelor students with the basic knowledge in passen- ger services to make it easier for them to start their internships or work life in airport envi- ronment, for example in ground handling companies. As departure control systems are widely used in passenger service units when processing airline passenger data, one of the most popular departure control systems, Amadeus Altéa, was selected to be taught on this course. In spring 2020, representatives of the three biggest ground handling companies at Helsinki airport were interviewed and six European universities were benchmarked. Interviews and benchmarking results showed that ground handling companies in Helsinki would appreci- ate if new employees would know basic skills required for the role already before starting in their company, but for students, so future employees, to learn Altéa or passenger service skills in universities is not so much available. Based on the results from benchmarking and interviews, literature reviewed as well as the industry expertise of the thesis authors, the course content, together with the implementa- tion plan, was created in Moodle. Keywords Altéa, passenger services, ground handling, skills, competencies, learning, Haaga-Helia Table of contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Lack of talent ........................................................................................................ 2 1.2 A course plan for Basics in passenger services course ......................................... 6 1.3 Thesis structure and delimitation ........................................................................... 7 1.4 Industry benefits .................................................................................................... 8 2 Passenger services in ground handling ....................................................................... 10 2.1 Tasks of a passenger service agent .................................................................... 11 2.2 Airport environment ............................................................................................. 13 2.3 Automatization .................................................................................................... 16 2.4 Travel documents & regulating authorities .......................................................... 20 2.5 Safety, security & human factors ......................................................................... 23 2.6 Special passenger categories & demanding customer service ............................ 26 2.7 The future of ground handling and aviation ......................................................... 28 3 Skills and competencies .............................................................................................. 32 3.1 Definitions of skills, competencies and qualifications .......................................... 32 3.2 Towards consistency in ground handling training ................................................ 35 3.3 Skills and competencies of a passenger service agent ....................................... 39 4 Departure control system ............................................................................................ 42 4.1 Departure control systems in general .................................................................. 42 4.2 Altéa departure control - Customer management ................................................ 43 4.3 Altéa for the user in brief ..................................................................................... 45 5 Creating significant learning experiences .................................................................... 47 5.1 Planning a course – decision guide ..................................................................... 48 5.2 Teaching, learning & unlearning .......................................................................... 51 5.3 Best practices for creating a Moodle course ........................................................ 54 5.4 Effective training cycle in ground handling .......................................................... 55 5.5 Industry related learning ...................................................................................... 57 6 Research methods and results .................................................................................... 62 6.1 Research methods and approach ....................................................................... 62 6.2 Interviews & benchmarking ................................................................................. 63 6.3 Reliability, validity and objectivity ........................................................................ 65 6.4 Results of the interviews ..................................................................................... 67 6.4.1 Wanted skills & competencies .................................................................. 69 6.4.2 The role of prior experience ..................................................................... 70 6.4.3 The role of Altéa in the future at Helsinki airport ....................................... 71 6.4.4 Future of passenger services ................................................................... 72 6.4.5 The effect of automatization on induction ................................................. 73 6.4.6 Insights on course content ....................................................................... 74 6.5 Results of the benchmarking ............................................................................... 75 6.6 Assessing quality of the research ........................................................................ 79 7 Creating course content .............................................................................................. 81 7.1 Planning the course ............................................................................................ 81 7.2 Duration and implementation plan ....................................................................... 83 7.3 Major course topics ............................................................................................. 85 7.4 Material in Moodle ............................................................................................... 87 8 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 93 8.1 Analyzing interviews and benchmarking results .................................................. 93 8.2 Facing the challenge of ever-changing aviation industry ..................................... 98 8.3 Future studies and development ....................................................................... 101 8.4 Evaluation of the thesis project and own learning .............................................. 103 References .................................................................................................................... 106 Appendices .................................................................................................................... 120 Appendix 1. Cover letter for interviewees .................................................................. 120 Appendix 2. Interview questions ................................................................................ 122 Appendix 3. Implementation plan .............................................................................. 123 Appendix 4. A role profile .......................................................................................... 125 Appendix 5. Basics of passenger services - course timetable ................................... 126 Appendix 6. Position of the course in curriculum ....................................................... 128 Appendix 7. Course objectives slides ........................................................................ 129 Appendix 8. Course summary slides ........................................................................