In a fragmented air cargo landscape, scalability without sacrificing service quality remains the goal.
“We realised a long time ago that for a company of our size to be competitive, we needed to be agile and efficient,” HAE Group’s CEO Neville Karai stated. “So we mapped a workflow of a standard GSSA sale and then adapted it to the local environment. We sell in-country, digitalise the booking and operational side, and then any manual work that is required is done offshore by our cross-trained C/S team.”
The company’s ability to blend centralised efficiency with decentralised insight is critical to its success.
“Once we have adapted the GSSA processes to meet the airline’s requirements and customer requirements, we then centrally ensure every carrier has an SOP, what our performance measurements need to be, and then ensure we are compliant,” Karai continued. “The regulatory compliance piece—be it DG, ICS2 and other global standards, or sanctions and denied parties, for example—is then built into the process.”
Core competency
In an increasingly commoditised GSSA market, HAE Group has positioned itself with a distinctive strategy. It’s not just about capacity sales anymore.
“They are the ‘plus’ in the strategy,” Karai said. “We need to ensure we never take our eye off the ball. So the core will be GSSA, and then, if we can facilitate the auxiliary services, we will offer them. The other services are sometimes our own and sometimes subcontracted to partners in the industry. We will also offer solutions like CSP and RFS when we know this will improve the airline’s offering to its customers.”
This modular approach extends to the company’s partnerships. “We don’t select who will appoint us, but it’s important to be registered on the airlines’ various procurement platforms, market that we are there and would like to be considered to represent them, and then ensure they are aware of what we have to offer,” he explained. “We consider we are different, solve many of the challenges that others struggle with, and this gives us many long-term partnerships that continue after the initial contract.”
Customer responsiveness remains at the heart of this expanded offer: “Our sales team are a great source of local intel on what is required. Our country management are always asking, ‘Could we do more, and what may add value locally?’ It’s definitely driven by the field as opposed to the centre. The centre’s job is then to understand, invest, and deliver on opportunities.”
