Forty minutes, gate to gate.
A ground handling proposal for Corvid Air's 212 daily turns at Harlow International, from Northgate Ground Services.
You asked for three things. Every page answers one.
These are your words, lifted from Corvid's handling tender. Each chapter below goes back to one of them.
“Hold forty minutes on every turn, the 06:00 wave included.”
We plan each turn backwards from push back, write float into the plan and keep a recovery crew in every terminal for the minutes that go missing.Corvid tender, section 2.1
“One handler and one standard across T1, T2 and T3.”
One duty desk, one radio channel and one turn card at all three terminals. A Corvid turn at T3 runs exactly like one at T1.Corvid tender, section 2.4
“Safety records we can audit on any day.”
Every turn is logged to the minute on a tablet at the stand. Your safety team gets the log, the near misses and the damage reports, unedited.Corvid tender, section 4.2
Forty minutes at B14, one lane at a time.
This is Corvid 418's turn as our duty managers plan it. Scrub through it minute by minute. Then grab any bar and drag it late, the way a catering truck runs late on a wet Monday, and watch what reaches push back.
The same forty minutes, 212 times a day.
Corvid's day at Harlow comes in waves. The first one decides the rest, so that's where we put the crews. Tap an hour to see what's on the ramp, or switch a terminal off.
- Corvid turns
- 24
- Crews on the ramp
- 16
- Recovery crews
- 3
- By terminal
- 11, 9, 4
Will forty minutes hold at 06:00, when every aircraft wants a crew at once?
For Dana, Corvid's Chief Operating Officer
percent of turns inside forty minutes, every calendar month, measured from your own ACARS times.
Yes, and the arithmetic is simple. Between 06:00 and 08:00 you turn 43 aircraft. We roster 16 full crews from 05:15, plus a recovery crew in each terminal, so no aircraft waits for a crew coming off another one.
If a month comes in under 95 percent, 3 percent of that month's fees comes back as a credit. You don't claim it. It's already on the invoice.
The on-time report is on your desk by 09:00 every day, with every late turn coded by cause.
Your September at Harlow, one dot per turn
6,360 turns, from the figures in your tender pack. Red ran past forty minutes.
What does a turn cost, and what happens when the schedule moves?
For Marcus, Corvid's Chief Financial Officer
average cost of a Corvid turn over five years, everything included.
Every aircraft type has one rate a turn, fixed for five years and indexed once a year to inflation, capped at 3 percent. You pay for turns we handle, so a quiet February costs less than a full August.
Add rotations and the same rate applies. Cut them and it applies just the same, down to a floor of 180 turns a day. Below that we'd sit down together, because the crews are rostered against it.
Move next summer's schedule
Same rates, same crews per turn. Only the count changes.
This is the schedule we priced. Drag it either way.
Who's on my ramp, and what stops a belt loader touching a door?
For Ines, Corvid's Head of Safety
aircraft damage events per 10,000 turns across Northgate's network last year.
Everyone on your stands passes 64 hours of training on Harlow's rig before their first live turn. Shifts stop at 11 hours, with 10 hours off between them, and our rostering won't let a duty manager break that.
Tap a point on the aircraft to see the rule that applies there. Each one is something you can check on a ramp walk without telling us you're coming.
What changes on my apron, and when will I notice?
For Tom, Corvid's station manager at Harlow
first briefing on day one, with your duty officer in the room.
We take over one terminal at a time. T3 on 1 February, T2 on 1 March and T1 on 28 March, the day the summer schedule starts. Each terminal gets two weeks of shadow turns alongside today's team first.
The 142 people on your ramp today are offered roles with us on the same pay or better, so most of the faces you know stay. The equipment changes. 38 vehicles, 31 of them electric, parked in the B-pier yard if Harlow agrees.
- Vehicle checks on all 11 units at T3, signed off on the tablet.
- Briefing with your duty officer. Today's schedule, stands and anything unusual.
- Crews on the first four stands, chocks and cones out.
- First Corvid aircraft on blocks under Northgate.
- On-time report to you and Dana, every late turn coded by cause.
- Fifteen-minute stand-up with you at 13:00, after the first wave clears.
- Joint ramp walk with Siobhan, our safety lead. You pick the stands.
- Week review. Anything that cost a minute gets a name and a fix date.
- First weekly report. Turns, delays by cause, damage and near misses.
- Shadow turns start at T2, alongside the current team.
- Equipment audit with Harlow airside safety.
- T2 goes live. Transferred staff fully on Northgate rosters.
- First monthly review against 95 percent, with Dana and Hana.
The people running your turns.
Four names you'll have on speed dial, and the crews behind them.
Hana Okafor
Account lead
Runs the contract and the monthly review. Twelve years in ground handling, the last five with low-cost carriers.
Rafael Duarte
Station general manager
Based at Harlow. Owns every turn, every roster and the 09:00 report.
Siobhan Keane
Safety and training lead
Built the 64-hour programme. Walks a Corvid stand every week, unannounced.
Kwame Mensah
Duty manager lead
Runs the duty desk and the recovery crews. The voice on the radio when a truck is late.
Priced per turn, so you pay for the flying you do.
Every line drops on its own and tells you what changes. The crews, the training and the forty-minute standard stay the same in every combination.
Terminals covered
Rate per turn, by aircraft type
Options
In every combination
We'd take all of it. If something has to come out, take out priority bags first. It saves $2,125,760 and doesn't touch the forty minutes.
We'd keep de-icing. One snowy 06:00 wave without a rig costs Corvid more in missed slots than a whole winter of cover.
- A year
- $5,199,512
- A turn, on average
- $67.19
- Turns covered a day
- 212
We'd take all of it. If something has to come out, take out priority bags first. It saves $2,125,760 and doesn't touch the forty minutes.
We'd keep de-icing. One snowy 06:00 wave without a rig costs Corvid more in missed slots than a whole winter of cover.
From signature to the summer schedule.
Read it like the departures board at Harlow. One row waits on Corvid, and the rest are ours to hit.
The terms, in plain words.
The contract says the same things at greater length. If anything here and the contract ever disagree, this page wins.
How long it runs
Five years from 28 March 2027, when all three terminals are live. Either side can leave at the end of year three with six months' notice.
What happens if we're late
If fewer than 95 percent of turns finish inside forty minutes in a calendar month, 3 percent of that month's fees comes off the next invoice. Three months in a row under 95 percent and you can end the contract on 60 days' notice, with no exit fee.
Who pays for damage
We pay for damage our people or vehicles cause, up to $2M per event without argument, and we carry $250M of airside liability cover above that.
How the price changes
Once a year in April, by inflation, never more than 3 percent. Schedule changes are priced at the same rate a turn in both directions, down to 180 turns a day.
What happens to today's staff
Everyone on Corvid's ramp today is offered a role on the same pay or better. The cost of the transfer is ours.
Who owns the data
Every turn log, report and photo belongs to Corvid. You get it daily, and in full if the contract ends.
What we don't know yet.
Four things are still open. Here's who decides each one and what we'd do either way.
Can we park 38 vehicles in the B-pier yard?
If not, we'd use the remote yard by the cargo apron. That adds four minutes of driving to the first turn of the day only, and we'd roster for it.
Is summer 2027 adding the Lisbon and Porto rotations?
Priced at the same rate either way. Yes means nine more hires by March, and we'd start recruiting in December.
Who buys the de-icing fluid?
We've assumed you do, through Harlow's fuel farm contract. If you'd rather we did, we'll pass it through at cost with no handling margin.
Which ops system should our turn logs feed?
Our tablets export to the common ops platforms. Tell us which one you run and we'll scope the link before shadow turns start.
One signature starts the shadow turns.
Sign by 21 November and our crews start shadowing your T3 turns on 18 January. Hana sends the contract the same day you accept.
Accepted. Hana is sending the contract today, and Rafael starts the hiring on Monday.
Questions first? Hana's direct line is 555 0142.