- aircraft de-icing
means a ground procedure by which frost, ice, snow or slush is removed from an aircraft in order to provide uncontaminated surfaces.
- aircraft handling
means all the ground handling activities and communications occurring on the movement area, including aircraft refuelling and defuelling, aircraft de-icing and anti-icing, replenishing with potable water, toilet and wastewater services, catering handling, aircraft cleaning services, provision and operation of ground support equipment, aircraft access, securing of aircraft on the ground, aircraft loading and unloading, aircraft pushback or towing, equipment attachment and removal, operation of vehicles and equipment in the immediate vicinity of the aircraft;
- aircraft loading
means stowing load or unit load devices (ULDs) on board the aircraft in accordance with the loading instructions;
- aircraft pushback
means the movement of an aircraft from a nose-in parking position by using external power of ground support equipment.
- aircraft towing
means the forward movement of an aircraft in service or out of service by using external power of ground support equipment that supports the aircraft’s nose landing gear or is attached to it;
- aircraft turnaround
means a coordinated process of activities associated with the handling of an aircraft, its passengers, baggage, mail and cargo, occurring in a predetermined time interval between the aircraft arrival and its departure;
- audit
means a systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which requirements are complied with;
- baggage
means the personal property or other articles of a passenger or crew member carried on a flight;
- baggage handling
means a process consisting of several steps covering baggage sorting, baggage build, baggage transportation from the sorting area to the aircraft and vice versa, gate delivery baggage, baggage arrival, mishandled baggage, baggage reconciliation;
- cargo compartment
means the area of an aircraft that may be used for the transport of cargo, and/or baggage;
- dangerous goods (DG)
means articles or substances which are capable of posing a hazard to health, safety, property or the environment and which are shown in the list of dangerous goods in the Technical Instructions or which are classified according to those Instructions;
- equipment restraint area (ERA)
means a safety buffer area around the aircraft, which shall remain free from obstruction and foreign object debris before and after aircraft arrival and departure and during aircraft manoeuvring to and from the parking stand, except for the ground support equipment and personnel required for manoeuvring;
- freight
means goods or property that are carried on an aircraft, other than baggage, mail, company material, company mail, and in-flight supplies, which are not consumed or used during flight;
- ground handling organisation
means one of the following:
- ground support equipment (GSE)
means a motorised or non-motorised mobile vehicle, apparatus or piece of equipment that is designed, built and used for the provision of ground handling services on the movement area of an aerodrome;
- inspection
means, in the context of compliance monitoring and oversight, an independent and documented conformity evaluation by observation and judgement accompanied, as appropriate, by measurements, testing or gauging, in order to verify compliance with applicable requirements;
- into-plane fuelling service
means delivery of fuel to an aircraft;
- just culture
means just culture as defined in Article 2, point 12, of Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- load control
means a process under the responsibility of the aircraft operator, to ensure that the aircraft is safely and efficiently loaded before each flight;
- loading instructions
means a set of instructions supporting the person supervising the aircraft loading in ensuring the correct and safe loading of the aircraft;
- mail
means dispatches of correspondence and other items, other than the aircraft operator’s mail, tendered by and intended for delivery to postal services in accordance with the rules of the Universal Postal Union (UPU);
- mass and balance documentation
means documents containing data about the aircraft mass and balance, centre of gravity, aircraft load, notification to captain (NOTOC) for dangerous goods, loading instructions, load information.
- notification to captain (NOTOC)
means accurate and legible written information provided to the commander or pilot-in-command concerning dangerous goods shipments or other special cargo that is to be carried on board the aircraft;
- organisation providing ground handling services in more than one Member State
means a ground handling organisation or a self-handling aircraft operator that provides services at aerodromes in more than one Member State and is overseen by more than one competent authority.
- passenger boarding bridge
means a telescopic corridor that extends from an airport terminal to an aircraft for the passenger boarding and disembarkation;
- passenger handling
means activities related to any kind of assistance to arriving, departing, transfer or transit passengers, including, where applicable, passenger and baggage acceptance, travel documents and flight tickets check, boarding pass issuance, gate activities, passenger boarding and disembarkation;
- single ground handling organisation business grouping
means two or more ground handling organisations providing services in more than one Member State and are registered in territories to which the Treaties apply, which facilitate the harmonisation of their management systems and main organisation processes for the purpose of compliance with this Regulation, including applying the same policies, processes and procedures to the components of their management systems such as the safety management, documentation, compliance monitoring, management of changes, training of ground handling personnel, operational procedures, and maintenance programme for ground support equipment;
- turnaround coordination
means a ground handling function with a safety role, which coordinates the ramp handling activities and ends with the release (dispatch) of a flight upon the completion of the ground handling services to the aircraft on the apron;
- unit load device (ULD)
means a device for grouping and restraining cargo, mail and baggage for air transport that is either an aircraft container or a combination of an aircraft pallet and an aircraft pallet net, which is designed to be directly restrained by the aircraft cargo loading system (CLS);