In October 2024, Canadian Aerodrome Support Services (CASS) was awarded the Pearson Common Handler License at Toronto Pearson. Writing that sentence for our employees, clients, and suppliers to see brings me a tremendous amount of pride that I don’t believe can be described in words.
With the award of the license, CASS now has a direct contract with all 54 airlines that operate at Toronto Pearson providing daily baggage support services of; Inter-Terminal Baggage Delivery, Carousel Management, Self-Serve Bag Drop Support, ITD Recall, Over-Sized Carry Down & Delivery, Passenger Recheck Support, Oversize Roadway to Lateral (Terminal 1) and Customer Service Support. Following the award, CASS at YYZ grew from roughly 90 employees to over 300 in what felt like overnight. WOW!! 54 new clients and over 200+ new employees!
The start-up of the contract was something I will never forget; it felt like we were racing against the clock for just over 3 weeks.
The CASS team was given a mission to complete, and as always, delivered. Starting with the team in the office, Stephanie, Matthew, Crystal, and Logan, all 4 of you went above and beyond any expectations I could have had. There was never a single moment where one of you wavered from the task at hand; it didn’t matter what needed to get done, you did it and did it well – fantastic work. Our training staff, Stewart and Clovis, you two gentlemen drove the bus getting our team equipped with the tools they need to perform their job and perform it well, all while learning a new operation yourselves.
Thankfully, between the two of you, I think there’s almost 100 years of experience in aviation (I’ll let that joke write itself), and you both played a key role in starting up and maintaining this contract; we could not have done it without you. Our team on the front lines led by Raffi and supported by our Duty Managers Jas & Ahmed, our Supervisors, DA Drivers, and key experienced employees; as I like to say, we can look pretty, sound smart and have all the best ideas, but if the bags don’t move nothing else matters.
The team on the front line exemplifies THE CASS WAY and provides a service to our clients that we can all be extremely proud of. Behind the scenes, Niko and Denise took on a monster with the data management and invoicing configuration, and to see the progress we’ve made is something you both should be extremely proud of. I know we will only continue to develop and improve our systems – I cannot wait to see that evolution. And finally, thank you to our executive team, Dean, Jim, Pascal, and Jake. Your leadership and guidance through this transition are invaluable; I feel incredibly fortunate to be a member of this group.
As we move into 2025, I am excited by the prospects this new contract will provide our organization. As a group, we’ve maintained a consistent presence at Toronto Pearson for over 40 years, and with the looming changes from the LIFT program, we feel so fortunate to be able to help take this airport into the future. As an organization, CASS will continue its endeavours to participate in the YYZ Airport Community with its involvement in the AOC, I am Toronto Pearson Program, Pearson Ready to Work program along with participating the global aviation community most notable with our continued membership in the BIWIG as well as regular presence at key conferences and industry gatherings around the world.
We are airport people; it’s who we are, and we want to move forward with the industry and into the next evolution. I cannot wait to see where we take this thing.
Until next time – ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!
