A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Human-Machine Interface; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
[Our] company is outsourcing ground operations and handling at certain stations. [Our departure airport] must be one of those stations. Today I noticed that [passenger agents] and ramp personnel were part of a company called [XYZ]. They did not know any of our procedures. [The passenger agent] closed the door 18 minutes before the departure time without checking with us. We were still getting fuel and he did not collect the aircraft safety check form left in the cockpit for me to sign. I called them back and had them open the cabin door. He admitted that he never worked a mainline flight and did not [know] the procedures. Then I noticed the push crew was signaling me to release the brakes and pushback with hand signals. There was nobody on the headset. I called ops and asked them about that. Ops person said that they left the headset at another gate and they'd like to do hand signals. I told him that they need to coordinate that with me beforehand and I said that they need to get their headset because of safety reasons and their obvious lack of knowledge of our SOPs. Finally they retrieved the headset but the person on the headset did not know any of our pushback SOPs. He would not reply or communicate with me during the pushback. It was very obvious that this crew did not receive any training about our procedures and was thrown out there to learn and operate on the fly. This type of operation is very dangerous. It seems like [our] company is expanding this type of outsourcing to many other stations. I'm very concerned about the lack of training. We need to stop this before they hurt someone or damage an aircraft.
An A319 Captain reported serial breaches of company SOP by recently contracted ground personnel. He fears his airline is expanding the use of safety task related contracted personnel around without providing effective training in the carrier's carefully developed SOPs.