When Alexandr Uzunov saw his brother off at Sofia Airport some years ago, he was impressed by a mosaic on the terminal wall – and by the complex choreography of an airport in motion. That moment started a 15-year journey through aviation operations: As a forecast specialist at Zurich Airport, then process management at Swissport, and now Head of Digital Transformation at CGS, a family-owned airport service provider operating across Switzerland.
What sets Uzunov apart is his conviction that technology should serve people, not replace them. At CGS, he's proving that optimizing processes and protecting revenue don't require sacrificing employee well-being or company culture. While many organizations chase speed and scale, he takes a different approach: involving 15-to-30-year company veterans in new processes from day one, implementing changes as a "well-paced marathon," and celebrating human touches like handwritten Christmas cards to 700+ employees.
In fact, such philosophy aligns closely with Dreamix's own culture – striving for excellence means diving deep into problems rather than racing through solutions. In today's fast-paced world, where pressure mounts to automate everything and maximize efficiency at all costs, Uzunov demonstrates there are more sustainable ways forward. His work shows that the winning strategy isn't always the fastest one.
Throughout our conversation for Dreamix's "State of Aviation" column, Uzunov's genuine passion for people and making their work lives better is truly inspiring.
Key Takeaways:
- Technology should augment, not replace human connections: The reality is 80% automation plus 20% human relationships. Whether it's operational teams understanding nuanced situations or passengers facing disruptions, the human touch remains irreplaceable.
- AI reality check: Computer vision delivers value now – monitoring turnarounds, improving gate capacity. Autonomous vehicles in ramp operations are, for now, more of a hype than a proven capability. They are not yet safe, efficient in all weather and cost-effective simultaneously.
- Building valuable software demands focus and discipline: One product can't serve small, mid-sized, and large operations effectively. But too much customization creates maintenance nightmares. Pick your target audience and serve them exceptionally.
- Three priorities for revenue optimization: Start with people (retention costs are massive), protect revenue streams with robust processes for charges and special events, and optimize the customer journey through proper contract configuration.
Q: How did you get into aviation?
Uzunov: It's a personal story. When we were seeing my brother off at Sofia Airport, the whole organization impressed me. That sparked an interest that grew throughout school – I wrote projects and papers on aviation and eventually applied to a practical-oriented program in Graz, Austria, focused on aviation subjects rather than pure engineering.
I spent two and a half years in Graz and one and a half in Switzerland on Erasmus and internship at Zurich airport. I did my thesis work there, and a forecasting specialist position opened up in the same department right as I was finishing. It wasn't easy for a Bulgarian to get a job in Switzerland back then – but it all worked out in the end.
Q: What's the biggest gap you see between what ground handling companies think they need digitally versus what actually moves the needle operationally?
Uzunov: There's definitely a gap between expectations and reality. A lot of what ground handling companies want is justified – moving to paperless operations by using technology. But there's this tendency to expect 100% automation.
The reality is more like 80% automation plus 20% human touch. Humans always look for humans for help.
Take workforce planning, for example. We're working with Dreamix on a mathematical model that can distribute shifts far better than a person could – faster and more complex. We should avoid wasting human capabilities on repetitive tasks that take days instead of minutes.
But the planner, for example, is the hidden manager of operations. They know where employees live, their family situations, whether they have a dog, what problems they're dealing with. This connection is valuable and valued by both sides.
Sometimes the planner will cover for an employee's personal situation. But next month, when you're desperately short-staffed, you call that same, employee and they will jump in for you.
It's the same with passenger handling. We have self-service check-in, self-bag-drop, but there's always that 20% – passengers who need the human touch or operational disruptions like system failures, where people need people. For instance, we recently traveled with our puppy for the first time, and I was really glad to have a human there to walk us through the process and get us reassigned to seats where we'd disturb fewer people with our nervous newbie jetsetter.
Q: Over the past two years at CGS, what have you been working on, and what's been harder than expected?
Uzunov: When I started two years ago, the company had experienced significant growth after COVID, and processes needed to become more efficient. So, we've been improving operations across Zurich, Basel, and Geneva:
- Established flight data interfaces in Basel – information flows directly into our system instead of manual transcription
- Automated service orders and developed a mobile app for digital service capture
- Digitized invoicing – eliminating Excel, printing, scanning, and uploading
- Working with Dreamix on shift allocation for mid- to large-sized departments
- Tested autonomous vehicles for PRM services – integrating them this year
- Professionalized reporting with Power BI and investing in AI for HR and operations
What's been harder in some instances is the human side. CGS is family-owned, with people who've been here 15, 20, even 30 years. They've worked one way for decades. You can't suddenly just flip everything. So we involve them from the beginning – to get their input, train them, and help them own the new processes. This shouldn’t be a sprint, but a well-paced marathon.
Q: How does CGS's "Destination Smile" philosophy influence your approach to digital transformation differently than at a larger, volume-focused operation?
Uzunov: It starts with knowing who you are. We're not a global player trying to maximize revenue at all costs. We're a family business focused on quality, reliability, and flexibility. We want to be more efficient in the background and more innovative at the front, but never at the expense of customers, passengers, or colleagues. We're looking for that balance where we keep the human touch.
Therefore, there are things we don't want to change. Our managing director still writes Christmas cards by hand to all 700+ employees. Some might see that as old-fashioned, but across all generations in our company, people see it as a kind gesture, a sign of respect and value.
We regularly discuss with people what the main issues are, and develop things bottom-up, That makes things easier to implement because you automatically have people's support.
Q: From your experience, where is AI actually ready to deliver value in ground operations today, and where is it still a hype?
Uzunov: Computer vision is really impressive. Solutions now can automatically monitor the entire turnaround. They track when the ground support equipment arrives, how long each step takes, whether someone's missing a safety vest and trigger an alarm. Think about Formula 1 pit stops – they've gone from double-digit seconds to just a few seconds by learning from data. We can do the same now. Reports show it really helps free up gate capacity and improve delay performance, so everyone wins.
Autonomous vehicles in ramp operations, on the other hand, we're not there yet in aviation. Airports are the perfect controlled environment for this technology, but from what I've seen, they're not delivering on all fronts simultaneously. They need to be safe, efficient in all weather conditions, and cost-beneficial. Right now you need very large, high-labor-cost operations to make it pay off. It’s more of a hype than reality at this stage.
Q: What's one technical challenge in aviation software implementation that most vendors completely underestimate?
Uzunov: On one side, building one product for everyone rarely works – the same solution can't effectively serve small, mid-sized, and large operations. It’s better to just pick one target audience and focus on it.
For instance, large operations need complex optimization. At Swissport, we performed task allocation for huge airports – we were optimizing this task based on the distances, equipment’s location and planning for the optimal next flight. But small stations don't need any of that. They lack the organizational capacity, and more importantly, they don't need a complex tool where they're using half the features.
On the flip side, too much software customization also becomes a nightmare. One customer wants something special, another wants something else, and suddenly, your standard product becomes a monster to maintain. When employees leave, you lose that knowledge base. At some point, you need to start simplifying it again.
Building software that actually solves your specific problems requires focus and discipline.
Q: You reduced revenue leakage by 2% at Swissport. Where should ground handlers look first when they need to optimize revenue?
Uzunov:
1. Start with people – your main asset
- Look at the entire employee journey: recruitment, onboarding, training, and workforce planning
- During operations: do they have what they need? Is it safe? Are they informed of the latest procedures?
- When they leave: understand why and what you need to improve
- Retention costs are real: Studies show that losing someone costs 1-3x salary (entry-level), 6-12x (mid-management), and 2-3 years' salary (senior roles). These are real costs beyond just recruiting.
2. Protect your revenue streams
- Ensure robust processes to capture, update, and release flight information accurately for turn charges (your main revenue)
- Incorporate strong system controls for special events: change of load, delays, and technical issues
- Track additional charges carefully – they vary by customer, and it's easy to lose track of who has what included
- Operational teams must flag extra requests and communicate with commercial departments, not just say yes
With thin margins, airline pricing pressure, and rising inflation, you can't afford unpaid work.
3. Optimize the customer journey
Track how you onboard clients, structure contracts, and configure systems. If contracts aren't configured correctly in your system, you'll have billing errors every time you service an aircraft
Q: From a forecast specialist to Head of Digital Transformation – how has data's role changed beyond just volume?
Uzunov: We're learning to use data better. As a forecast specialist, we used historical data in a very specific way. We'd look for flights with the exact same characteristics – same day, hour, flight number and aircraft type – and basically copy-paste the seat load factor to the new schedule. If we couldn't find an exact match, we'd use the average for that airline and day of week. And, honestly, it has worked surprisingly well so far.
That, however, required constant attention. You had to think about trends, moving holidays like Easter, or geopolitical events. These were outliers you had to account for manually. Now, with AI / Machine Learning, you can handle unstructured data much better – shifting holidays, traffic patterns, special events, and reduce human error and improve accuracy.
The other big change is computer vision – translating pictures into data and then actions. That opens up so many applications across the industry.
Q: What trends are you watching most closely, and what's the challenge that keeps you up at night?
Uzunov: What keeps me up is helping my colleagues do their jobs better and easier. When they succeed, passengers get a better experience. Day-to-day, that might mean software development, digitizing processes, eliminating tedious work, or meeting colleagues in operations.
Right now, I'm particularly focused on our PRM operations (passengers with reduced mobility) at Basel Airport. We're implementing new software to manage tasks, new hardware for autonomous passenger experiences, and machine learning for more efficient planning.
The PRM space is especially interesting. It's only one to two per cent of passengers, but it’s growing with our aging population. Autonomous vehicles make sense here because they give people freedom and dignity. There's often a psychological barrier to asking for assistance – with an autonomous vehicle, you just sit, press a button, and go. You can stop at a duty-free without feeling like you're inconveniencing someone.
For broader trends, AI is obvious, but we're still figuring out where to apply it effectively. Cybersecurity is becoming critical – aviation handles sensitive data and is always in the media. If someone wants to cause harm, aviation gets attention, and hundreds of thousands can be affected.
Q: You're teaching future aviation professionals. What's the mindset you're trying to instill in them?
Uzunov: Some key points I often emphasize:
- All aviation stakeholders are in the same boat. We all want a great passenger experience. Most of us are passengers ourselves
- Understand different perspectives. My students are mostly pilots and air traffic controllers. What looks like an airport monopoly actually has all kinds of constraints – aeronautical and non-aeronautical. Be open-minded, curious, don't assume too quickly
- Aviation is small and people know each other. We need more collaborative, win-win projects instead of just chasing the lowest rates
- Ticket prices are unsustainably low. There should be some floor because systems and people stand behind this service. If the industry keeps pushing prices down, it will self-destruct. Consolidation is ongoing anyway – bigger companies, fewer players, and eventually higher prices
Q: What's one leadership lesson that surprised you or changed your approach?
Uzunov: Whether it's company owners, ramp agents, CEOs, or IT people – understand what drives them. We're all human, and the goal is creating value for each of them.
