On the Record With
Steve Grimes, Chief Executive Officer, Harrods Aviation
"You've got to be prepared to go that extra mile." So says
Harrods Aviation CEO Steve Grimes of the personalized service offered to FBO
customers that he thinks is this company's key to success. "Our customers are
all very, very special, and sometimes they have some interesting requests," he
adds.
"As a company we don't have demarcation lines, and staff are
totally flexible. When it is 'all hands on deck' to unload 22 tons of freight
from a visiting governmental Boeing 747, even I am roped in. I'll always remember
working in a hot and stuffy hold in the back of a jumbo, trying to maneuver an
impossibly large carpet. It belonged to a Middle Eastern princess and she had
literally moved her whole household to London for the season.
"Sometimes, on arrival, our VVIPs require items from a
certain green-and-gold-branded retail outlet in Knightsbridge, and of course
we're only too pleased to arrange this for them.
"Talking of which, I meet with Mr. Al Fayed [Harrods' owner]
every week to 10 days to update him on our aviation activities. He doesn't
interfere in the Harrods Aviation business but is very supportive. It's a
family business; we are all part of his extended family and the staff is proud
to be part of it. It's personal and it's important."
Air Harrods, the company's helicopter charter arm, is having
its busiest year ever, with a remarkable 50% increase in flying hours over
2004.
"We've done everything from supplying helicopter lift for
the G8 Summit at Gleneagles— when we ferried heads of state back and forth— to
transporting UK politicians around the country during this year's general
election campaign," Grimes says.
Air Harrods operates two Sikorsky S-76s and an Agusta A109
Power Elite. Grimes says that after 9/11, helicopter business dipped— "But this
autumn we're still going strong, which surprises us. Helicopter work usually
drops off just before the winter months set in."
Air Harrods took delivery of a brand-new S-76C+ at the end
of August, replacing an older model. It has the new quiet gearbox that Grimes
says is "fantastic— much, much quieter and very popular with our clientele."
Harrods Aviation announced at last year's NBAA Convention
that it had become a Sikorsky sales and distribution agent for the S-76 and
S-92. Says Grimes, "The new models are selling so well that it is affecting
waiting times. Earliest delivery for the S-76C++, if you book now, would be
early 2007, and for the S-76D third quarter 2008 is the first available date."
His message is: Book now to avoid disappointment.
