Swissport

The company was founded in 1996 as Swissair Ground Services International, independent of the former Swissair. In the following years, the company expanded both through organic growth and through various acquisitions. As part of the Swissair financial crisis, Swissport was first purchased by the British private equity firm Candover Investments and later sold in August 2005 to the Spanish construction company Ferrovial. In the meantime, the company had grown through various acquisitions. At the end of 2010, Ferrovial sold Swissport for €654 million to the French private equity firm PAI Partners.

In August 2013, Swissport announced the acquisition of competitor Servisair

which bought Handlex in Canada, a part of the group Transat in 2012. In December 2013, the acquisition was approved, subject to conditions by the European Commission.

Over the years, Swissport has been the recipient of several industry awards including Ground Handling Award 2013, Air Cargo Handling Agent of the Year 2014 (for the sixth year in succession) and Global Aviation Ground Services Company 2012 (for the twelfth year in succession).

On 31 July 2015, China's HNA Group, the parent company of Hainan Airlines, announced that it would purchase Swissport for $2.81 billion US.

On 7 March 2018, Swissport concluded the acquisition of Aerocare and its subsidiaries Skycare, Carbridge and EasyCart from Archer Capital and the Aerocare management. Swissport now holds 100% of Aerocare, an Aviation Services and Airport Infrastructure Services provider in Australia and New Zealand.

On 8 June 2020, Swissport's Belgian subsidiary declared bankruptcy, which was confirmed by the Belgian commercial courts the following day.

On 25 June 2020, Swissport UK & Ireland announced a 50% reduction in its workforce of 8,500. In November 2020, Swissport USA filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy.