RYDER Ground Fleet Services (GFS) has taken over responsibility for British Airways' (BA) support fleet vehicles at Manchester Airport. Under the new fleet management contract, Ryder GFS will operate and maintain at least 300 pieces of equipment on a 24-hour, 365-days a year basis.

Ryder GFS has taken on 12 extra staff who will work out of on-site workshops, with support from a rapid response mobile workshop. The new agreement cements a long-standing business relationship between the two companies stretching back to 1997, with Ryder GFS already managing and maintaining up to 7,000 items of equipment for a number of BA divisions based at Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham airports.

Ryder GFS general manager Peter Harte said: 'This agreement reflects the close ties we have established with BA in recent years and we look forward to providing it with the high standard of support it has come to expect from us at Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham.'

Services provided by Ryder GFS include specifying and procuring airside support vehicles, ranging from cars to aircraft tugs, ensuring optimum levels of fleet availability, disposing of old vehicles and providing regular management information on fleet utilisation and wholelife costs.

In the past 12 months Ryder GFS has taken over the Heathrow contract for worldwide catering company Gate Gourmet and won another new ground support contract at Heathrow with Italian national airline Alitalia.