EU Ground Handling Safety Rules Bind in March 2028

By James Calloway

Ground handling at EU airports becomes a directly regulated activity in March 2028. That date is fixed. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/20 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/23, published on 7 March 2025 and in force since 27 March 2025, give providers three years to comply. For the first time, the sector sits inside the EASA framework.

More than 300,000 people work in ground handling at EU airports every day, according to EASA. Loading, boarding, refuelling, de-icing and turnaround coordination now fall under rules that flight crews and maintenance engineers have faced for years. Until now, they did not.

Why did the gap exist?

Oversight previously landed on the wrong organisations. EASA confirms that responsibility for supervising ground handling service providers (GHSPs) rested with the airlines and aerodrome operators that contracted them, not with the providers themselves. The cost was measurable. A single GHSP operating across a large network could face up to 600 industry audits in one year, EASA says, with each client running its own checks.

That structure produced paperwork, not uniformity. Each audit duplicated the last. No common standard existed across member states, and national authorities each handled supervision their own way.

What do the regulations actually contain?

The package is broader than two texts. ERA, the European Regions Airline Association, notes that three amending regulations — (EU) 2025/21, 2025/22 and 2025/24 — were published alongside, updating the Air Operations, Aerodromes and Cybersecurity frameworks. Ground handling is now explicitly within scope of Regulation (EU) 2022/1645 on cybersecurity, EASA confirms.

EASA structured the rules across two annexes, per Aviation Pros / Ground Support Worldwide:

• Part-ORGH (Annex I): organisational requirements. Under ORGH.DOC.110, every provider must establish a manual documenting its activities and procedures.
• Part-GH.OPS (Annex II): operational requirements for service delivery.

Flexibility is real but bounded. ORGH.GEN.125 permits organisations to use their own procedures, industry standards such as IATA's IGOM and AHM, or a mix of both. EASA and ERA confirm mandatory management systems, training standards and continued competence requirements for ground handling personnel. The rule accepts existing industry practice. It does not exempt anyone from documenting it.

EASA developed the rules with an expert group that included national authorities, GHSPs, aircraft operators, aerodrome operators and a workers' trade federation. The people closest to the ramp had a seat at the table. Whether that guarantees proportionate implementation across 27 member states is a separate question.

What changes for airlines, providers and regulators?

Accountability moves. GHSPs become formally responsible for safe service provision, EASA and ERA confirm. In parallel, air operators lose their oversight obligations for ground handling at EU airports. Airlines no longer audit their handlers. Handlers now demonstrate compliance themselves.

The mechanism is a declaration of compliance submitted to the relevant National Aviation Authority, according to EASA. Oversight shifts from client-to-contractor to regulator-to-regulated. For airlines, that is a genuine simplification — provided their handlers are actually ready in 2028.

What does this change for a mid-sized provider? A manual under ORGH.DOC.110, a management system, training programmes meeting the new standards, competence tracking, and a filed declaration. For an operator serving dozens of stations, the workload is substantial.

Is three years enough?

EASA's Flight Standards Director, Jesper Rasmussen, framed the task when the regulations were published: "The countdown has now officially started: EASA's task now is to work closely with the national competent authorities and industry to take the necessary measures for a smooth implementation of these regulations."

The agency has started engaging. ERA reports EASA was due to present to members and take questions at the ERA Safety Group meeting on 3 April 2025, days after entry into force.

Three years is tight for building management systems, training tens of thousands of workers, writing manuals and filing declarations across every member state. The flexibility provisions lower the barrier. They do not remove it. Whether national authorities staff up for consistent oversight before March 2028 will determine whether this closes a gap or merely relocates it.