Airglow Aviation Group Defying adversity

The only authorized distributor of CCN Solutions in GCC, which is an integrated platform service for streamlining the supply chain management of the cargo community, Airglow Aviation Group continues to soar despite the many challenges that come along with this pandemic.

Established in 2009 in the UAE as an ACMI based operator providing cargo charter services, Airglow Aviation Group has since grown to offer different aviation solutions and services, including airline representation, aircraft leasing, aviation training, travel & tourism, aircraft spare parts trading and even engineering services.
With combined industry experience of over 60 years, Airglow Aviation’s highly-skilled staff provide professional, reliable and cost-effective services to its growing list of customers 24/7, anywhere in the world.
Its extensive network curated over the years allows the company to provide agile professional services, responding to enquiries in a timely manner. The team of professionals at Airglow are equipped with the required training and skills to allow them to act diligently to offer exceptional service to clients and deliver qualitative value.
Add to that is the company’s comprehensive portfolio of services which help its airline partners reach measurable goals.

The company said it has successfully done so by understanding and analyzing the portfolio of products, services and network of its partners which leads to the deployment of market experts who capitalize on existing business opportunities and secure profitable agreements.
“The objective is to maximize the yield, utilize payloads and generate long-term revenue streams for the partners. These objectives are compounded with Airglow’s commitment to provide a comprehensive range of marketing activities, customer and operational services and accounting & finance support,” Airglow Aviation said.
“At Airglow, our expert team members analyze routes, payloads and timescale to propose suitable aircraft for the relevant requirements. This is coupled with innovative solutions that provide part-charters, backloads and commercially innovative solutions for ad hoc requirements, peak season and specific cargo projects,” it added.
Airglow Aviation also offers advice on pre-flight packing requirements, customs, warehousing and provides supervision of aircraft loading & unloading including arrangements for special equipment requiring custom built solutions.

It is also the only authorized distributors of CCN Solutions in GCC which is an integrated platform service for streamlining the supply chain management of the cargo community. With this software, the customers have an added advantage as they have access to cargo management, customs security compliance, documents management, business performance analytics and other value-added services. CCN’s partnership with IATA has permitted the Freight and Air Way Bill to be provided in electronic format which has made tracking and communication effective and easier.

Airglow Aviation Group Founder and Chairman ZaidanKhalifat and its Managing Director RohitThakwani briefly discussed with Air Cargo Update their business insights as the world turns into the air transport industry to fight the pandemic and achieve some semblance of normalcy despite the ongoing global health crisis.

How did the pandemic impact your business?
As the pandemic hit and its waves rippled across many industries, it crippled the aviation industry. Our partners were constantly operating on a daily basis and the dramatic drop in the number of passengers due to flight restrictions and health concerns came as a tremendous shock, as operations fell to a complete standstill.
This left a crater in our lives which had to be filled and hope came in the form of demand for medical equipment, consumables and medication. Transport was required but was naturally unavailable and that is where Airglow decided to step in and create a business path facilitating the journey for their partners.
In April, the team at Airglow started operating passenger freighters out of Afghanistan for Air Arabia and from UAE for Cham Wings as well as others from India, KSA & USA. This became a lifeline for the partners as they decided to fill the void with cargo to fulfill the increasing demand. This step was possible due to the agility demonstrated by Airglow and the resilience we showed in the face of challenges.
How hard was it to convince your partners to consider cargo as a business model for their operations?
It was quite a challenging task to convince partners to change their business model which relied on passenger traffic to cargo and it required a certain kind of dedicated resilience to convince them by communicating the benefits and addressing their concerns. There was an overwhelming notion amongst the partners that this pandemic would be short lived, therefore they preferred to be conservative in adapting to the change.

Air Arabia, however, was quite eager to adapt and they were one of the first partners to come onboard
with the new strategies and it was due to this e a g e r n e s s t h a t w e managed to bring 20 Tonne of cargo from Afghanistan to Sharjah on an A320 passenger aircraft.

What are your priorities at the moment?
Airglow Aviation started as a Charter Operator but evolved their offerings to provide Airline Representation (Cargo GSSA/GSA services). The pandemic has taught us agility and resilience but we prioritize our core business and values. Therefore, our priorities remain to be representatives for our partner airlines providing them solutions in the face of challenges. We want to highlight our success to increase the number of airlines we represent and provide them with the same kind of value adding service we currently offer our existing airline partners.

What are your long term goals?
Resilience is the key and a testament to that is our recent signing of a partnership with Uganda Airlines in Dubai and Air Peace in India. Therefore, it is vital for us to focus on our core strengths and provide comforting service to our partners. Customer satisfaction is often overlooked as GSAs sometimes focus more on the financial aspect of a business relationship, but we intend to continue to provide an elevated level of service to our partners which will allow us to retain them as partners and lead us to acquiring fruitful partnerships in the future.