Through its global presence, local knowledge and experienced team, HADID delivers smooth trips and service excellence however challenging the customer’s requirement
Headquartered in Dubai though it may be, Hadid International Services – HADID – delivers global service through its instantly familiar brand. The company takes particular pride from its ability to offer customers 24/7 availability through its Operations Control Centres (OCC), combined with local on-the-ground knowledge in multiple locations.
Founded in 1981 as a regional flight support enterprise, HADID has grown not only its OCCs, with their dedicated teams for international flight planning (IFP), dispatch and so on, but also a proprietary software system. While the OCCs also act as a central contact point between suppliers, agents, station managers and operators, the COMPASS flight management system/CRM software (known as MASTER before it was updated in 2018) has the capacity to handle thousands of international flights.
Technology is also essential for the cohesiveness of the HADID team, wherever individuals are based. Even before the COVID pandemic, the team communicated regularly through video links and other media. With HADID’s traditional annual conference and dinner impossible in recent times, and reduced or no presence at aviation trade shows, however, Zoom, Teams and the like have gained added importance.
Offices and FBOS
HADID has regional offices in China, India, Italy Niger, Pakistan, the UK and the US, with representatives on the ground expanding coverage to many more countries. It also has FBO facilities, or Executive Aviation Terminals in HADID parlance, in Italy and Pakistan. At its Riviera Airport, Italy, facility, the HADID presence includes branded ground support equipment and vehicles, while the Mehran Lounge at Pakistan’s Jinnah International Airport (KHI) has HADID staff on the ground and uses carefully selected, audited suppliers.
HADID’s charter offer is comprehensive, its teams searching for the best available flights and comparing aircraft and prices to suit the needs of the customer. And, because the company’s service and expertise are wide-ranging, that customer may be looking for an executive flight, or to move anything from a sports team, through cargo, to livestock. Depending on the type of flight and region, customers may benefit from HADID’s partnerships with operators selected for their comprehensive and reliable service. Where this is the case, HADID may also be able to offer even more competitive rates.
The company markets itself as being able to offer consistent services worldwide, at short-notice and in the most difficult locations. Indeed, while European and US business aviation typically involves a jet or turboprop to fly between airports, occasionally with a helicopter transfer at one or both ends of the journey, that’s not always the case elsewhere.
In many regions, business aviation means taking whatever aircraft type is required to get the job done. With an office in Niger and in recognition of the challenging weather, terrain, infrastructural differences and unique requirements in certain parts of the African continent, the HADID team has experience in arranging charters on a wide variety of aircraft, from the Cessna Caravan, through helicopters, to the latest Global 7500. Again, the combination of local knowledge and global network affords the company an unusual level of flexibility.
Flexibility easily breeds complexity, however, and HADID strives to ensure its customers experience smooth trips regardless of their requirements. Head of Operations, Akram Abbas, explains: “Our standard operating procedure dictates professional standards for customer service and rules for communication with clients. We also ensure our worldwide vendors and on-ground personnel are chosen carefully and trained perfectly. We coordinate between our departments and business development teams, suppliers, station managers and other personnel on the ground, using processes perfected over more than 40 years of providing flight support. We work hard in the background to ensure seamless and safe trips, updating and briefing our clients as needed, always with a commitment to service excellence.”
Within that commitment, HADID’s flight operations teams secure landing and overflight permits; generate optimised flight plans; follow flights, weather and pertinent NOTAM updates; perform airport analyses, and more, while its concierge department handles passenger and crew arrangements including airport meet and greet, transportation, hotel accommodation, visa assistance and much more.
This same level of focus and commitment also applies to HADID’s defence and humanitarian customers. Government flights require different flight permits and plans, may call for revised levels of discretion and involve consideration of the risk factors associated with the transportation of dangerous goods.
Time-critical missions and medical evacuation (medevac) flights, where mistakes are not an option and short-notice requests common, present another set of challenges again. All are within a day’s work for the HADID team, which enjoys the satisfaction of a challenging mission accomplished smoothly and, on occasion, helping save lives.
Thanks to its flexibility, international presence and extensive skill set, HADID has pulled strongly through the past 18 months or so. It has supported cargo flights throughout the pandemic, including those moving COVID vaccines, and arranged charters for repatriations, medevacs, and humanitarian and government operations.
Looking to the future, the executive team is very optimistic, having seen the pandemic catalyse modernisation and digitisation within the aviation industry. It sees the new, greater emphasis on health and safety at airports, plus the rising number of first-time business aviation users as fuelling the expansion of its FBO network. Traffic through the Riviera and KHI Executive Aviation Terminals has been encouraging and network expansion to other ‘promising locations’ is expected in the near future.