• HAE Group is moving away from growth based purely on scale, focusing instead on niche handling activities where it can exert control, add value and sustain long-term customer relationships.
• The company is extending its role beyond airport handling by integrating air-to-air trucking, compliance, digital connectivity and first- and last-mile services into customer operations.
• By combining operational depth with digital and compliance capabilities, HAE is positioning itself to manage shifting capacity patterns, e-commerce demand and ongoing overcapacity in the market.

Ground handling has become a game of fine margins and tighter choices. For operators, the question is no longer how to grow fast, but where it still makes sense to invest time, people and capital.

For HAE Group, the answer has been to step away from scale-for-scale’s-sake and move further into the operational chain. As capacity patterns continue to shift and customer expectations harden around speed, reliability and accountability, the company is concentrating on niche activity where it can exert control, integrate services and remain commercially relevant to long-term partners.

“Competition is fierce at the moment,” said Richard Thackeray, COO of HAE Group. “Which is why when it comes to handling we tend to focus on niches where we know we can add value, gain a return for ourselves and maintain long standing relationships.”

Old playbooks don’t work anymore

To meet rising customer expectations around speed and responsiveness, the company has been investing steadily in infrastructure and training. “We have invested in new handling equipment, management infrastructure and training to be competitive and responsive to customers changing needs,” he said. “We also offer a number of additional services to help customers.”

This includes a growing focus on airport-to-airport (A–A) movements, which are gaining popularity as a faster alternative to traditional multi-modal transport. HAE’s model differs from traditional GSAs by embedding itself deeper into its clients’ operations. “HAE’s GSA+ mentality and approach means that we can service a range of clients that traditional service providers cannot,” Thackeray noted. “Our approach is to be as ‘sticky’ as possible offering A-A truck brokerage, handling, back office, sales, and admin and finance.”

Wholesale access for SMEs

The group also provides wholesale services to SMEs, giving smaller forwarders access to capacity and back-end functions they might otherwise struggle to secure.

While point-to-point remains dominant in many lanes, HAE sees a continuing role for air-to-air transhipment—particularly in response to changing capacity flows. “Key hubs in our opinion will always complement point to point services as demand is commodity, transit time, capacity and price driven,” Thackeray said.

He pointed to recent shifts in Asia–Pacific flows as a case in point. “It’s fascinating to see how carriers ship supply, for example, away from AP–US to AP–EU and to AP–LATAM, but capacity imbalances then become a challenge for GSA to help the carrier with its economics,” he explained. “E-commerce demands have also had an impact moving away from hub and spoke to generate their own supply and demand, where their sales increase.”

The evolving interplay between freighters and passenger bellyhold also adds complexity. “The use of freighters feeding wide-body passenger services, for example, through the Middle East, shows there is more science than ever in the supply chain.”

Compliance, complexity and digital advantage

Beyond physical movement, Thackeray sees growing pressure in the compliance space, particularly around customs and classification accuracy. “Our compliance partners’ APIs are market-leading and cover everything from denied parties screening to accurate commodity descriptions,” he said.

Yet there’s still friction caused by inconsistent standards and fragmented data. “It is also vital that all parties in the supply chain are aware of their obligations, as there seems to be a lot of manual data cleaning and passing of the responsibility to parties further down the chain,” he said.

Digitalisation, in his view, is the only way forward. “It’s critical, no other way of putting it,” Thackeray stressed. “Harmonising the data and common use of the same information will enable compliance and add speed to clunky processes.”

To support this, HAE offers API connectivity and customs broker services in several key markets. “We can offer compliance services and API connectivity for forwarders, airlines, customs brokers and handlers with state-of-the-art systems that can assist in the correct classification of HS Codes, descriptions and even landed costs in many markets.”

While many handlers are focused purely on-airport, HAE is extending its footprint further into the first and last mile. “In handling we offer beyond the airport to and from door, airport to airport trucking and flight supervision and planning,” Thackeray said. “The addition of these services acts as an enabler for our customers to enter new markets, particularly in Europe.”

This strategy also supports the group’s commercial positioning as post-Covid-19 overcapacity lingers. “Our focus is to grow our activity even in a market where often there is overcapacity,” he said. “It’s not about gaining overall market share, for us it’s about growing the activity and being competitive for our airline partners and our forwarding customers.”

In a market still shaped by overcapacity and shifting demand, HAE isn’t trying to be everywhere—it’s focused on being essential. By extending beyond the airport and building smarter, more connected services, it’s helping customers stay agile where it counts.