At Menzies, we are continually striving to progress our global Ground Service Equipment (GSE) strategy in line with our All In sustainability plan. We have set ambitious environmental targets for our GSE fleet, including 25% of GSE to be electric by 2025, and we are always looking for opportunities to accelerate our plans, working closely with our key stakeholders and partners.

In 2023, our priorities are to expand and scale our refurbishment and repowering of GSE assets, collaborate with equipment manufacturers on developing and trialling new technology and take an electric first approach to new motorised GSE. Our electric GSE fleet has already increased by 124 assets so far in 2023, on top of the 198 electric assets we introduced last year, resulting in 18%  of our GSE fleet being electric.

With this in mind, at the end of May we were excited to hold an exploratory and collaborative three-day summit with our GSE partners TLD Group and AES, which are part of the Alvest group of companies.

During the session, our global GSE team were joined by  Mervyn Walker, Chief Operations Officer, and Alvaro Gomez-Reino, Chief Financial Officer, at both the AES refurbishment centre in Mount Louis and the TLD assembly factory in Sorringy, France.

Stephen Gallagher, SVP GSE and Equipment, said: “It was fantastic to bring our global GSE team together with our partners as we explore new ways of collaborating to deliver a brighter and more sustainable future for aviation. We all came away feeling energised and focused on what we need to do in the year ahead to move the needle in the right direction and advance our priorities.”

Key discussion points over the three days included:

• Refurbishing and repowering motorised assets to electrical power throughout our network
• Reducing landfill and repurposing as many components as possible
• Buying electric, and utilising hybrid vehicles wherever necessary to assist our All In sustainability strategy
• Reconfiguring operational set-ups to maximise opportunities to select electric over diesel or gasoline
• Exploring the benefits and opportunities of using more lithium technologies and the future of hydrogen
• Innovative safety and fleet utilisation opportunities
• Agreeing new and alternative ways of supplying and supporting GSE with both AES across their expanding network of operations and the TLD Group

Stephen concluded: “The three companies have a shared vision of how we can deliver our GSE and sustainability strategies, working together on ways to improve operational and safety performance on the ramp as well as reducing our combined carbon footprint. The Menzies team is excited to continue this journey with the Alvest Group.”