Dale Aviation Ltd is a privately owned company, serving aviation industry as a Maintenance Repair Organisation (MRO), offering its customers in-house support to their aircraft. The company has administrative headquarters in Haywards Heath, West Sussex and maintenance sites in France. It is UK.PART145, EASA PART145, 2-REG, BDA, Cayman, Senegal, Qatar and Madagascar approved. Managing Director Matko Dadic explained what keeps the company in the air to Hannah Barnett.
With a healthy turnover exceeding €10 million, Matko Dadic, Managing Director explained what it took to shape Dale Aviation into the successful business it is today. “Love and passion for the aviation industry keeps us going,” he said. “As well as the large range of requirements in the market for various types of support and assistance.
This could be anything, from simple ideas and guidance to full maintenance support.”
Dale Aviation offers a wide range of services to ensure that an aircraft is fit for flight. The approved scope of work covers, but is not limited to, the following: arrival and departure checks, transit checks, other routine and non-routine line maintenance tasks as part of a maintenance program, defect rectification, component replacement, minor repairs and modifications, and more. The company is highly flexible and provides services 24/7 if required.
Services on offer
The company have been running its main site at an old airport, based in central France, for 10 years. It offers a huge range of facilities.
“We provide many different services from here,” explained Mr Dadic, “such as base maintenance, storage and parking,
painting support, modifications, and dismantling. Other sites we have in France, and across Europe, are created to provide line maintenance service to different customers. At the moment, we have around 80 employees, and we are actively recruiting.”
It is clear that Dale Aviation is not a company prone to standing still and is always looking for opportunities for growth. For example, Mr Dadic revealed that the company works on opening line stations outside of the EU soon. As well, Mr Dadic explained that at the end of last year, Dale Aviation started its first official C-Check. A C-Check is the inspection required to be performed on each aircraft every 18 to 24 months.
Though the company has a lot going on, Mr Dadic pointed out that parking service has been the company’s busiest activity on offer, currently. “We mostly provide a parking service to a few operators for their aircraft when they are not on the ACMI contract and, at the same time, we
prepare them for the next planned ACMI,” he explained. “This service has been active for the last four years.”
Also known as wet or damp leasing, ACMI leasing is an agreement between two airlines, where the lessor agrees to provide an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) to the lessee, in return for payment on the number of block hours operated.
A flying success
According to Mr Dadic, the company distinguishes itself from its competitors in the MRO marketplace simply by the high quality of its work.
“The so-called advertising model we are using is word of mouth,” he said. “Although it is an old marketing strategy, it has not lost its effectiveness. We offer to our present, or future, customers quality services
“And at the end of last year, we proudly started our first official C-Check”
and assistance. Customers are satisfied. They recommend us to their peers, who will do the same, and those peers to theirs, and so on. Yes, competition is increasing but I see this as a positive trend. We remain strong in our market.”
Indeed, no company can be successful for long without a strong relationship with its chain of partners and suppliers. Dale Aviation is no different. Among many others, the company works with Lufthansa Technik (LHT), Magnetic MRO in Estonia, Croatia Airlines Technical Services and the Italian Aermeccanica.
Mr Dadic explained that strong partnerships take time and loyalty to develop, but in the long run can pay dividends on both sides. “In the beginning, building a network of suppliers and partners was quite a hard and painful journey,” he reflected, “but the moment we increased our presence in the market and our name become known,
things started to change. Now, we are the ones choosing our suppliers and partners in business. It’s fundamental to build an open and trustworthy relationship, where we can rely on each other and mutually support each other’s business, as well as profitability.”
A sustainable future
Though it is not the company’s core business, Dale Aviation sometimes has a hand in dismantling and recycling aircraft. “We are currently discussing the possibility of dismantling a couple of aircraft within the next six months,” said Mr Dadic. This, of course, improves Dale Aviation’s sustainable credentials.
Communication is important when it comes to customers, too. And, according to Mr Dadic, that it is one way Dale Aviation keeps ahead of trends in the market. “We are constantly following
market requirements,” he explained. “This means complying with regulatory changes and investing in tooling and staff training. This is not a fast process as we have a limited budget for investment. But we keep up regular lines of communication with our customers and adapt ourselves to their needs. That keeps us afloat in the marketplace.
“A lot of our customers are increasing their fleet, which prompts us to seek partnerships with operators who need maintenance service providers like us. At the same time, there is a lack of base maintenance facilities and base maintenance providers. So, if we focus on keeping the quality of service at a good level, the future looks bright.”
Complementing this cloud-free horizon, Dale Aviation intends to invest in a new
hangar for a wide-body aircraft, in order to fully develop its activities and services. The company remains committed to helping customers. And in Mr Dadic’s words, though challenges exist, they are what keep the job interesting: “Each day, I solve puzzles in the workplace. It keeps my mind sharp and makes me excited to get up every morning.”n
