Maritime & Shipping Awards 2017

4 APAC / Maritime & Shipping Awards 2017 , MS17019 Leading International Aviation Support Provider – UAE Fly Aviation provides a wide range of support services fromacross the aviation and travel market. We invited Xanthous Sangalang, Commercial Manager, to talk us through the firm and share the secrets behind its success so far. Fly Aviation is one of the most reliable trip support providers for short notice permits, ground handling and airport ground services to any destination worldwide. Xanthous discusses the firm’s services offering in more detail and outlines how it works to ensure the support and success of every trip its clients take. “Here at Fly Aviation we are a “Trip Support” company with a diverse team of aviation professionals and licensed dispatchers which provides and arranges services you might need to fly your aircraft from point A to B with the least amount of effort and cost. Our invaluable knowledge to navigate through countries civil aviation policies and airports technical knowledge and connections ensures that our clients’ flights get there on time, every time. “Our services are best utilized by aviation companies that operate an aircraft internationally such as medevac, aircraft charters, air cargo, VIP, presidential or military flight operators. They encompass flight permissions, computerized flight plans, aircraft handling, aviation fuel, and any other service the crew might need to successfully operate the flight on or across foreign territories. We never settle for “good enough”, which is why internally we keep streamlining our processes, make use of aviation information services, keep an eye out for software that might help our business, train and attend seminars and conferences in addition to our team’s efforts to be in the know of what is happening in our industry and beyond because we understand that our company must not settle and be comfortable with what we have. We believe that our knowledge and skills must be consistently honed and sharpened to always keep our services at their peak.” Central to the firm’s success is its hardworking, dedicated and skilled staff, as Xanthous is keen to highlight. “What truly makes our team stand out is the fact that our operations team are all licensed dispatchers who are very well trained and knowledgeable. So after communicating with our team you are left with a strong sense of security and peace of mind that your flight is safe with us.” “In our very competitive market, most, if not all, of our competitors do not have this advantage because it would operationally cost more to have licensed dispatchers in their operations and would ultimately cut against their profits and bottom-line.” “Internally, we maintain a light but professional atmosphere in our offices to reduce job stress and pressure on our team members, this in turn reduces mistakes, creating an always pleasant demeanour towards our clients that promotes a work environment where there are no office politics, no finger pointing and fully encourages the team to resolve problems as a whole unit instead of finding someone to blame for an issue. “To ensure the continuation of this successful culture, when we look for new team members, one of the things we look for is their passion to get things done and see things through to its completion. In our business, you will be confronted with a lot of challenges and hurdles that veers towards the impossible and our job as a service provider is to get our clients and their flights through these challenges with as little to no interaction to ease their operational burdens. This is where these traits in a new team member flourishes especially being around like minded individuals, this develops those traits further allowing our team members to change the status quo of impossible challenges.” Looking ahead, expansion is Fly Aviation’s ongoing focus as the company seeks to grow geographically whilst retaining the same superior client service for which it has come to be renowned, as Xanthous concludes. “Over the past couple of years we have opened several aircraft handling stations in the Middle East and Africa most recently in Iraq and Djibouti and is now focusing on growing our sales offices. Last year we opened our sales office in the UK and just this past month we have opened our sales office in Mainland, China. These new sales offices combined with our business development team in Dubai cover the major markets we are trying to corner for the meantime. “Currently we are executing phase two of our expansion. Further down the road we will be focusing more on the other half of the world which are the Americas and Australia by either opening new handling stations or sales offices.”