General Terms and Conditions of AirPart GmbH – Ground Handling Services

Last change: may 01, 2024

§ 1

AirPart GmbH, subsequently called APG, will conduct ground handling services on behalf of the customers, who instructed them, as far as APG has the technical and staff capacities available. Depending on the availability, the services will be conducted by staff and/or equipment. Within this scope, these General Terms and Conditions will apply in general, as far as no different stipulations have been agreed upon in writing between the respective customer and APG. 

§ 2

(1) APG will conduct the requested services with trained staff as well as facilities and equipment which correspond with the traffic requirements and the regular standard in international air traffic as far as possible.

(2) APG is entitled to implement third parties as subcontractors. 

§ 3

The customer and APG will reconcile as to the operation of ground handling services and will take useful recommendations of the respectively other party into account as far as possible.

In case of emergency and alarm within the scope of ground handling services, APG is entitled to take immediately and without prior consultation of the customer all measures which seem necessary and useful in the best interest of the customer, third parties or APG itself. The customer, in whose scope the emergency happened, will have to bear the incurring costs unless APG is responsible for the emergency.

§ 4

(1) The customer will provide APG with their flight plan and all necessary information and instructions as soon as possible and early enough, so that APG will be able to fulfill the services they are responsible for. In case of un-scheduled flights (including consolidation flights) and delays, the customers will have to inform APG as soon as possible and in due time about the intended use of services. Sub-section 2 will apply in those cases as well, if the pre-requisites are given. 

(2) If non-scheduled or delayed airplanes of a customer will lead to temporal overlaps with the handling of airplanes of other customers, APG reserves the right to prioritize the handling of scheduled and announced airplanes. Flights with less than 24 hours between STA or ATA (whichever is earlier) or STD or ATD (whichever is earlier) and the announcement to APG that ground handling services will be needed, are regarded as unannounced.

(3) The customer will contact APG in due time when

 a) loading, unloading or reloading of particularly bulky or heavy cargo will have to be carried out, for which special loading equipment will have to be implemented or 

 b) special equipment or other services will be necessary upon loading of extraordinary cargo.

(4) In case of cancellations of planned flights, the customer will pay a flat-rate compensation, where usually saved expenses and usual advantages due to other use of staff and equipment are also taken into account. The compensation amounts to:

a) between 48 and 24 hours before STA/STD 25% of the basic handling charge; 

b) less than 24 hours before STA/STD 50% of the basic handling charge 

(5) The customer is at liberty to prove that a smaller damage has occurred to APG due to the non-utilization of services. 

(6) Handling of valuable cargo (import and export) is not possible through APG. If valuable cargo is nevertheless delivered, receipt shall be refused and must be returned by the delivering party. The costs incurred for this shall be borne by the customer.

(7) A surcharge of 5% of the flat rate for handling per 60 minutes will be charged to the customer for delayed departures, which APG is not responsible for. However, the delay surcharge may not exceed 50% of the flat rate for handling. 

§ 5

Unless otherwise arising from primarily applicable contractual conditions, APG shall be liable in the event of a breach of contractual and non-contractual obligations in accordance with the following conditions and statutory regulations:

(1) APG shall be liable for damages - irrespective of the legal grounds - within the scope of fault-based liability in cases of intent and gross negligence. In the event of simple negligence, APG shall be liable, subject to statutory limitations of liability (e.g. care in its own affairs; insignificant breach of duty), only

a) for damages resulting from injury to life, limb or health,

b) for damages arising from the breach of a major contractual obligation (obligation whose fulfillment is essential for the proper execution of the contract and on whose compliance the contractual partner regularly relies and may rely); in this case, however, APG's liability shall be limited to compensation for foreseeable, typically occurring damages. The liability of APG in this case shall be limited to

• for damage to and loss of baggage, air freight (including live animals) and air mail caused by simple negligence on the part of APG only in accordance with the insurance contract concluded by APG up to the maximum sum insured of € 2.6 million and € 60,000 per loss event and
• for other damages for which APG is responsible due to simple negligence, up to the existing sum insured of € 400 million per incident.

(2) The limitations of liability resulting from subsection 2 shall also apply to third parties and in the event of breaches of duty by persons (including in their favor) for whose fault APG is responsible under statutory regulations. They shall not apply if a defect has been fraudulently concealed.

(3) Notwithstanding the above, APG's liability towards the customer in individual cases shall not exceed that of the customer towards third parties. In this respect, the provisions of the Montreal Convention and the Warsaw Convention shall also apply, in particular those provisions that limit liability.

§ 6

(1) The customer will have to pay charges (handling charge) for each handling executed by APG. It will be determined due to the respectively published list of charges as far as no other written stipulations have been agreed.

(2) The basic handling charge will always be charged as well as charges for rendered additional services, which are not included in the basic handling charge and published in the list of service charges (additional services), as far as no other written stipulations had been agreed upon beforehand. The basic handling charge will not be reduced by the fact that the customer could not or did not use individual services, which are included.

(3) If during the execution of ground handling services at the airport the customer uses his own staff and / or equipment, the basic handling charge falling due will not be reduced by that as far as the ground handling will be at least partially executed by APG. Furthermore, the customer will release APG in those cases from any liability due to personal or material damages towards third parties, which is caused by the implementation of own staff and / or equipment.

(4) Handling charges have to be paid plus value added tax, which might be applicable.

§ 7

Besides the customer as joint debtor, the following will be debtors when it comes to handling charges: 

a) the airline, under the airline code/flight number of which the respective flight will be operated,

b) the airlines as joint debtors, under the airline code/flight number of which the respective flight will be operated (code sharing),

c) the aircraft owner,

d) any other company applying at APG to issue the invoice covering the charges in their name or company name.

e) the person or legal entity, using the aircraft without being the holder or owner like, e. g. hirer or lessee.

§ 8

APG is entitled to offset any counter-claims, to reserve the right of retention and to object to unfulfilled contracts. The contract partner is only entitled to withhold services if the counterclaim is based on the same legal relationship. The contract partner is only entitled to offset if the counter-claim is undisputed or legally binding. This restriction will not apply if claim and counter-claim are based on the same contractual relationship.

§ 9

(1) Payment of the handling charges falling due has to be effected in cash before the respective flight as far as no other payment method had been explicitly stipulated. 

(2) If any payment method after departure of the flight had been stipulated, APG will issue an invoice covering the handling charges for the respective month tot he airline. Invoices have to be paid within 7 days without any deduction and free of charges and expenses in EURO currency. APG reserves the right to charge default interest for delayed payment. 

(3) If subsequent payment had been agreed upon, APG may demand securities up to the amount oft he expected turnover within the upcoming three months. Securities may be deposited in the form of prepayments or directly enforceable guarantee from a bank based in the Federal Republic of Germany. 

(4) If APG points out in their invoices that the recipient will have to check the invoice within a reasonable deadline and object as to the correctness towards APG, the invoice will be regarded as correct and accepted as far as the recipient will not raise any objections. A reasonable deadline will be one month starting from the issuing day of the invoice, if APG did not stipulate a longer period. The general terms as to the consequences of staying silent in commercial transactions even within a shorter period of time shall remain unaffected by this. 

(5) APG may interrupt the ground handling services according to paragraph 1 and 2 if there is a delay in payments or if the necessary securities have not been deposited.

§ 10

The Airport User Manual of Flughafen Nürnberg GmbH in the respectively current version is part of these General Terms and Conditions.

§ 11

(1) Supplements and changes to these Terms and Conditions and the appendices must be made in text form. If APG informs a business partner of the changes to the General Terms and Conditions, these shall be deemed to have been approved unless objected to within a period of 2 weeks.

(2) The invalidity of single regulations does not result in the invalidity of the remaining Terms and Conditions. The contracting parties agree already at this point of time that if single regulations will become invalid, the parties will negotiate with the target to substitute the invalid regulation with a stipulation which comes closest to what the parties intended economically with the former stipulation.

(3) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only basis for the contractual relationship between APG and the customer.

(4) Place of fulfillment is Nuremberg.

(5) Nuremberg is the only place of jurisdiction as far as the contractual party is a businessman, a legal entity under public law or special fund under public law. APG is entitled to sue the contractual party also at their general place of jurisdiction.