Executive Summary
What this charter operator needed
- A partner capable of handling international trip support at scale.
- Zero turbulence during the switch, despite having 24/7 missions.
- Both teams confident about the switch and working together as one unified team.
What Universal delivered
- A proven track record, with the global expertise and resources to support the large charter operator.
- A customized strategy to manage the changeover.
- An immediate and noticeable quality improvement in the charter operator’s missions.
Changing international trip support providers for a charter operator the size of us is like trying to replace an aircraft’s engine mid-flight.
Story
The Need for Change
A charter operator was in the midst of rapid growth and approached Universal regarding issues they were having with their international operations. Their current trip support provider could not effectively scale with their growth and number of international missions they were operating. Errors and quality issues were becoming too frequent, and it was clear that a change was needed
A Partner to Scale With
The growing company was searching for a partner who could fill the role. With its reputation, scale, global expertise, and global resources, Universal was identified as the strong fit candidate. However, a transition of this scale would not be easy, and there were a lot of questions to answer and boxes to check before making a switch.
Making the Change with Active Trips on the Books
Changing providers is never easy for any flight department. However, transitioning into a new partnership as a large charter operator with 24/7 active missions, including last-minute requests, is even trickier to navigate. As one of the charter’s flight department managers stated, “Changing international trip support providers for a charter operator the size of us is like trying to replace an aircraft’s engine mid-flight.” A disruption in active missions during a changeover of this scale could devastate their business, yet the path to accomplish this was unclear.
So Many Moving Parts – Difficult, but Not Impossible
There were a lot of details to work out and a lot of questions to be answered, like:
- What would the process of migrating all the operational profile and preference data look like, especially with so much fleet and people documentation and data?
- How would everyone in the flight operation be trained on new procedures with Universal and its technology platforms?
- How and when could the switch be made?
- What safeguards could be put in place to bulletproof those first trips?
It seemed overwhelming.
Setting Realistic Expectations & Developing a Plan
The first step was to understand the charter company’s business, the challenges they were currently experiencing with their international trips, and where they saw their business going in the next year.
Setting realistic expectations on what was possible and what wasn’t would be critical to making the partnership work.
Next was the process of developing a plan and putting resources into place. This plan included Universal developing a custom internal ops team to give the large charter the needed focus.
The plan was presented and discussed, and they met the Universal team leads it would be working closely with. Questions were answered, and adjustments were made.
The charter company felt confident about the path ahead and agreed it was time to move forward.
Putting Plan into Action
One of the critical parts of the implementation plan was breaking a potentially massive operational onboarding into smaller, more bite-size pieces.
The core teams on both the Universal and charter company’s sides meticulously worked together through everything needed to make the switch. This included:
- All the operational profile and preferences data – airplane, people, and operator level.
- Process documentation – Ensure both sides understand the shared processes and what to expect, from pre-trip planning to active trip support and post-trip follow-up.
- Training – Getting dispatch and crew confident with the new procedures and technology platforms they’d be using, as well as an understanding of new resources now available to them that they didn’t have before.
- Test Missions – Rather than moving over all missions simultaneously, the team identified and planned for select missions to pressure test against before making the changeover. This included missions carrying the charter company’s own executive leadership as passengers. Both teams worked hard to iron out any wrinkles in these initial test missions and saw continual iterative improvements with each successive one.
Going through this process together also helped the two teams develop a strong working rapport, which would be beneficial when the big changeover was made.
Making the Change
When both teams felt confident that everything was working smoothly, a date was picked, and the changeover was made – and it went pretty smoothly.
Universal was ready to handle the increase in trip volume with minimal impact on existing operations.
The charter company and its people were ready for the change and reported an immediate improvement in quality across their international missions within the first week.
Fast forward to today, and both companies continue to have a lasting partnership that helped this company continue successfully on its growth path.