Apart from a few small airports, where airlines have to check in themselves, it is not very common for pilots to lend a hand when loading luggage. To ensure that an Edelweiss flight from Edinburgh to Zurich could take off on time, one of the two pilots helped with the loading.

On June 19, 2022, Edelweiss wanted to fly from Edinburgh to Zurich with the Airbus A320 with the registration HB-IJV. However, the ground service provider obviously had too few staff available. One of the two pilots took the initiative and grabbed the apron workers under the arms. He helped load the suitcases. A passenger captured a short video and posted it on Twitter.

It was obviously very important to the Edelweiss cockpit crew that the flight could be carried out on time. One of the two pilots simply lent a hand himself and thus accelerated the loading of luggage.

Edelweiss explained, among other things: “We Swiss are helpful and always try to be on time. Because our pilot actively helped the ground handling colleagues at Edinburgh Airport, the flight landed in Zurich on time. This example is an exception. For a pilot, flight preparation and safety always come first. Of course, that also applies in this case.”

Self-handling is possible, but rather rare

However, the "incident" is emblematic of the acute shortage of staff at airports in the United Kingdom. The situation there is extremely tense at many airports. For example, Gatwick recently had to announce that the number of daily flights has to be limited due to a lack of employees.

In principle, an airline is not obliged to use the apron services of the respective airport or the ground handling service provider. Each airline can also handle itself. This is quite common in the United States. In Europe, real self-handling only occurs at smaller airports that do not offer any handling at all. At first glance, Ryanair handles itself in the UK or Spain, for example. However, this is only partially correct, because it is a group-owned ground handling company whose services can also be booked by other airlines for a fee.

In Vienna, Austrian Airlines offers so-called passage services. Put simply, these include check-in and boarding. AUA not only looks after its own passengers or those of the Lufthansa Group, but also has numerous third-party customers who use the services for a fee. Austrian Airlines does not offer any apron services in Vienna. Here the airline has the following choice: Vienna Airport, AAS or self-handling. The latter is extremely rare.