Portway

The answer for service quality

Portway, handling de Portugal, s.a. has evolved from being an alternative in the Portuguese handling market into a well-known and reliable partner already providing quality ground handling services to more than 70 airlines operating at Portuguese Airports.

In July 2000, portway started its activity as the first handling company licensed to provide services to Air Carriers in Portugal. Originally created as a joint venture, owned and managed by two shareholders, each with their own crucial know-how, portway immediately began by meeting the individual needs of its different airline customers.

ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, S.A thus established a direct and permanent presence in the handling business, investing in its management skills and knowledge of the airport sector, and, at the same time, providing a better service for its clients.

Fraport AG (the Frankfurt airport management and handling company) joined forces with ANA in order to operate in the Portuguese ground handling market, leading to the creation of portway, handling de Portugal, s.a. in which the two companies had shares of 60 per cent (ANA) and 40 per cent (Fraport).

With a share capital of €9,500,000 and a turnover in 2005 of more than €22 million, the company has succeeded over this five-year period in gaining a market share in its genuinely liberalised area of business of roughly 30 per cent (number of aircraft handled) and 50 per cent of the total of Portuguese air cargo handling.

portway has established itself as a benchmark company in terms of the quality of the services that it provides to its customers. This fact is borne out by the award of the TUV ISO 9001:2000 certification and the successive prizes and awards that have been achieved (IATA accreditation for its training school, best air cargo handling agent twice in a row in the Transportes & Negócios magazine (2004 and 2005) and the first European company to receive 100 per cent in a UPS auditing test).

The search for improved quality never ceases. Now, in January 2006, portway has roughly 700 employees, all highly qualified and receiving regular in-service and external training, since training is one of the key features of portway's human resources policy. Its training centre is a Dangerous Goods IATA Accredited Training School, which means that the quality and efficiency of its training has been recognised by an association that promotes high quality, as well as safe, reliable and economical air services - for the greater benefit of the world's consumers.

This accreditation allows portway to hold courses in the Handling of Dangerous Goods (Categories 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) and confirms the high standards of both the institution and its staff. Furthermore, portway is the first Portuguese handling company to have received such recognition.

Portway operates at Portugal’s three main airports: Lisbon, Porto and Faro, offering full ground handling services and benefiting from its own equipment maintenance services, as well as having high-tech handling equipment and IT systems at all three airports, some of which were even developed in-house.

One of the company’s slogans promises that it handles your every need and all its efforts are dedicated to ensuring that all its customers, indeed all its partners, enjoy the best service possible. Individual solutions are offered, based on Service Level Agreements, and it remains portway’s mission to master the challenge of offering both the highest level of quality ground handling services and complete control of its operating costs. This is the only way in which to be sure of building and maintaining a long-term relationship with its customers.

In 2005, portway handled roughly 14 500 flights, having also handled 2.7 million passengers and roughly 60,500 tons of cargo. Many airlines such as Alitalia; TAAG; Maersk; Virgin Express; Hapag Lloyd Express, amongst others, have chosen portway as its handling partner. This has resulted in an important increase in Portuguese air traffic (with Easyjet; Ryanair; Germanwings; Swiss; SAS; Aer Lingus; LTU and DHL now present). Alitalia is currently handled by portway and the dedicated staff are pleased to don ??? the company’s uniforms and show pride in the airline they represent.

Portway’s complete reliability is demonstrated by the fact that all Integrators have become part of the long-term customer relationship that portway has always worked hard to achieve (e.g. DHL; UPS; TNT; Fedex). These clients are particularly demanding in terms of efficiency and punctuality in all their Cargo and Mail Services and show complete trust in portway’s services, as do a number of organisations running important events, such as the Lisbon-Dakar Rally. And, once again, it’s these individual solutions that represent the great customer advantage offered by portway.

In 2005, as a result of the review that FRAPORT carried out into its share portfolio, and in view of the impossibility of its having a majority shareholding in the capital, Fraport decided to disinvest in those companies where it had minority shareholdings, such as portway. ANA consequently decided to take over Fraport’s shareholding in portway’s capital and became the company’s sole shareholder as from mid January 2006.

As far as the future is concerned, portway’s business strategy will remain unaltered, continuing to be centred on seeking opportunities for the profitable growth of its turnover and permanently differentiating itself from its competitors through the quality of the service that it provides and its high standards of efficiency. Such a strategy is in line with the ones followed by its best European counterparts in the handling business and is most clearly aimed at producing a further expansion in the national and international ground handling market.

Portway’s services:

Pax

• Passenger and Baggage Check-In with DCS
• Boarding
• Escorting Passengers on Arrival
• VIP Services
• Special Services for UM and WCH
• Lost & Found Baggage Services
• Excess Baggage Handling

Ramp

• Passenger and Crew Transportation
• Aircraft Loading and Unloading
• Ramp to Flight Deck Communication
• Aircraft Moving (Push Back/Towing)
• Cabin Cleaning (sub-contracted)
• Lavatory and Water Servicing
• Aircraft Engine Starting

Cargo and Mail-Services, Warehouse Operations

• Lifts for Loading and Unloading
• X-Ray Scanning
• Coolers
• Safe Storage for Valuable Cargo
• Weight-Bridge
• CCTV&DVR Systems
• Security Personnel (sub-contracted)

Load Control, Ops and Communication

• Pre-service preparations
• In-service control and coordination
• After-Service Communications

Representation, Administration, Supervision and Support Services

• Passenger Escorting Services
• Passenger and Crew Transportation
• Car, Limousine Rental (sub-contracted)
• Accommodation in Contracted Hotels for Crew and Passengers
• Traffic, Transit and Landing Permits
• Surface Transport
• Catering Services (sub-contracted)
• Office and Storage Space
• Load Device Storage and Control

Aircraft Security Services

• Travel Documentation Verification
• Passenger Profiling
• X-Ray Screening of Baggage and Cargo
• Baggage Reconciliation
• Monitoring all personnel, vehicles, equipment and goods employed in the servicing of aircraft.

Training

• Load Control
• Dangerous Goods
• Security

Contact Details
	T: +351 21 844 50 01
	F: +351 21 841 36 90
	W: www.portway.pt