Priding itself on embracing change and constantly challenging themselves to remain at the forefront of the sector, HAE Group has been striving to step up operations through innovative ways to secure more business at the best possible yield.

“It’s not just about A-B, a rate and off we go. Airline products, handling, cut offs, incentives, customer recovery and service are all still needed and not everything can be automated. The most agile GSSAs will be able to adapt to a revised role and how they can contribute,” Ian Hutchinson, Chief Commercial Officer, stated.  

Tech takes hold

Digitalisation is key to HAE Group’s evolution, not just for the booking, but for promoting the activities of companies in the GSSA sector and their importance in the airfreight process. That’s reflected in how the GSSA has sped up digitalisation of the business. 

“Our quality management system now enables us to offshore, extend the hours we can service our partners and customers for and speed up how we quote and aid spot pricing for many of our carriers,” Hutchinson said.

“There are functions that used to be done in country that our systems now allow us to do offshore. This helps us focus on the commercial activity in country and our offshore team manage our operations,” Hutchinson continued. “This evolution has allowed us to work 24/7 for track, trace, follow up and administration. We have also embraced artificial intelligence through automated bookings, status updates and are now working on demand forecasting. 

HAE Group’s digital road map includes a number of self-developed tools. The company also subscribes to a number of industry leading datasets that allow it to facilitate growth for itself and its customers. 

“This is done via market leading sales intelligence – we do not just make bookings, we sell! We measure number of quotes, missed opportunities for the carriers, we subscribe to market data and analyse it to the benefit of the carrier and customer alike,” Hutchinson outlined. “Our reports and dashboards of activity are automated so we can offer dynamic pricing, capacity management, quote conversion analysis and where opportunities can be targeted.” 

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Support and services

Representing over 40 airlines worldwide, through offices in North and South America, UK, Ireland, UAE, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa, HAE Group has been working to expand its operations. In 2023, it added bases in Italy, China, Morocco and Hong Kong. 

The company has a global solutions team in the UK, a training team also in the UK and cargo handling activity in the UK and South Africa. They also have offshore commercial teams in Poland and Kenya. 

“HAE’s long standing understanding of our local markets coupled with our constant engagement with local industry groups ensure we are at the forefront of region awareness,” Hutchinson said. “The wide scope of our activities enable us to bring different solutions to different regions based via an integrated Senior Management Team (SMT) and a modern method of sharing information across HAE. We work hard to ensure our SMT communicates internally and shares success and challenges. Our SMT remain very close to our field teams to ensure best practice is always targeted.”

As well as core GSSA services, HAE Group also offers a range of value adds, trucking, handling, customs destination trucking, and more. “The more you can do for someone the more likely they are to buy from you would be our philosophy,” Hutchinson highlighted. 

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Market movements

The return of capacity and the reduction in demand has led to significant challenges globally.  

“HAE has always reviewed our business model to ensure we are industry leading. These reviews have focused an aggressive sales model and offshoring strategy that enables us to offer a very competitive product to airlines that are consistently focused on value for money, even more so in 2023,” Hutchinson said.

With the industry moving into the digital space at an increasing speed, HAE launched its customer login on its portal, so customers can interact with and enhance their relationship with the GSSA. For airlines, HAE has used this to produce dashboards so they can easily manage the fast pace and dynamic nature of the industry.

“The need for value for money, via competitive / creative GSSA solutions, will continue to play a major role into 2024,” Hutchinson stated.

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