SME News Q4 2018

26 SME NEWS / Q4 2018 , Airtask Group provides bespoke integrated aviation solutions for private and public customers in a diverse and demandingmarket. Airtaskwere named as the Best for Integrated Aviation Solutions in the 2018 SME UK Enterprise Awards. On the back of this achievement, we spoke with Julie Simper, GroupManaging Director, to find out how they have become one of the leading lights in the aviation industry. Delivering Best in Class Aviation Services on a Global Landscape Established in 1983, Airtask has been the go-to provider for highly-targeted aviation solutions, forging a reputation for excellence in a sector that demands only the best. Over the years, they have diversified their services and have kept apace of large paradigm shifts in an industry that has always sat on the very cutting edge of technological development. Since 2014, Julie has utilised her impressive financial background to be the driving force behind Airtask as it becomes a truly global company that continues to grow and expand to new markets. To start, Julie gives SME News a brief summary of Airtask’s mission, and how they aim to develop thriving partnerships with their clients. “We seek to deliver high quality, innovative and cost-effective solutions to our customers. Working in partnership, our specialist teams identify in detail the requirements needed to develop bespoke solutions to deliver timely and accurate services. We encourage all of our team members to continuously review our processes and we challenge ourselves to find new solutions which can improve the outputs. Having developed close working relationships we often work in partnership on new initiatives that ensures the customer gets exactly what they are seeking, and the teams have a very personal sense of pride in their work.” This diligent approach plays a key role as Airtask aim to distinguish themselves from their competitors, as Julie explains more: “We believe what differentiates us is our approach to finding solutions for our customers. We seek to understand their requirements and offer a solution that meets them, bespoke solutions are the key to that. In addition, working in partnership means that through close relationships expectations are managed with teams eager to deliver a high integrity product.” “We have expanded our capabilities, fleet and areas of operations in recent years and continue to work closely with our customers to provide innovative solutions in future years, it is a very exciting time for us.” It’s not long before the conversation turns to the proverbial elephant in the room - Brexit. Julie takes a moment to discuss recent and upcoming developments in aviation services, and how they could affect Airtask’s operations and timeline. “Recently, we have seen many new providers seek to gain access to the sector. In some cases, this may be individuals who offer consultancy working with a number of partners to develop industry solutions or major manufacturers who are wishing to expand their services. With Brexit being the hot topic presently the matter of border security is being seen as a much greater opportunity than it may have been previously which is encouraging more competition into the market. Brexit will undoubtedly affect us, like every sector, but it is difficult at present to state to what degree. Regardless, we remain optimistic and sincerely hope that there are opportunities which offer SME’s such as Airtask Group the chance to develop further.” Julie continues, building on the benefits of being based in the UK – specifically, the benefits of being based in East England. “Our Head Office is based in Cranfield, Bedfordshire which is also the home base for the UK’s Atmospheric Research Aircraft. Being co-located with the organisation responsible for co- ordination of the aircraft missions has been key to the success of the aircraft since beginning operations in 2004. The benefits of being located close to both major airports, for ease of transportation, and regional airports, for ease of aircraft operations is twofold. That said, we have a number of outstations; this brings its own challenges but similarly has allowed us to develop remote working practises which we can now employ when aircraft are deployed around the world.” UKE18160 As we come to the end of the interview, Julie highlights Airtask’s internal culture, which is centred around the simple idea that a positive and nurturing environment yields good work. “We have worked extremely hard to develop teams which take great pride in their work, this is through a positive, engaged culture. We seek to recruit individuals that not only have the right skill set but also demonstrate a desire to embrace the culture and work with us to grow, both in terms of commercial growth but also in encouraging the positive safety culture. To finish, Julie talks on the future of Airtask, as it looks to capitalise on strong growth: “We have already experienced strong growth in recent years and we fully intend to improve upon that, with a clear strategy supported by our Board. We have grown our Business Development team who are now fully focussed on delivery of the strategy.” Contact: Julie Simper, Group Managing Director Company: Airtask Group (formerly trading as Directflight Ltd) Address: Cranfield Technology Park, Trent House, University Way, Cranfield, MK43 0AN, United Kingdom Website: www.airtask.com Telephone: +44 (0) 1234 757 766