A compliment doesn’t go unnoticed at AirNet Express, the Columbus, OH-based overnight delivery specialist. In fact, it’s received with a genuine “thank you” in return, then happily catalogued into what the airline calls SOARS—Stories of Airline Reliability and Service. Here’s a typical tale from client AdCom Worldwide of Minnesota, a loyal AirNet customer for 20 years:
“It’s one thing to offer an attractive flight schedule; it’s another thing to offer an attractive flight schedule that works. Their schedules are consistently on time, their equipment is top-notch, their pilots and maintenance crews are great, and I know their planes are going to be ready and available without having to ask. Sure, it sounds obvious enough, but you can’t afford to overlook any of it when you’re responsible for getting a package delivered on time—especially when delivering it a day late or even a few hours late is not an option.”
It’s always nice when someone else blows the complimentary horn, but then, AirNet sets and meets undeniably high standards for the company and its employees, so it’s no surprise that others take notice. For instance, AirNet takes the term, “on time,” very seriously. In 2002, its on-time performance was 98.9 percent, but the goal is always to do better and for AirNet management, 100 percent is not considered unattainable.
Under parent company is AirNet Systems, Inc., AirNet Express is its integrated national air transportation network, a remarkably diverse operation delivering time-critical documents. The company’s air courier service coordinates airport-to-airport delivery for major courier service companies; its medical transport arm moves life-saving patient care products, organs, radio-pharmaceuticals, and blood; it flies employees of U. S government agencies; its charter operation flies people or cargo; and its regulated cargo division moves highly specialized shipments, including HAZMAT. AirNet also maintains complete FBO services from its headquarters at Port Columbus International Airport (CMH), operates an aircraft acquisition and sales division, and has even started a small flying club.
But while AirNet is diverse, it hasn’t forgotten what comprises its foundation. “Our core business is built around a national network that moves canceled check cash letters used to execute fund transfers,” CEO Joe Biggerstaff explains. “We effect the actual transfer of funds. Banks maximize the processing time of financial documents, but require minimum transit time to present them in order to realize the most beneficial impact on the depositing institution that received the check.”
It’s the way the financial industry moves when “banker’s hours” are over, and Biggerstaff feels it’s the way AirNet works within this seemingly complex system that sets it apart. “Our company can receive goods and move them over a very large territory to multiple end points,” he says. “And we do it in a very speedy, cost effective, and high quality manner.
“Within the segment, we’re the dominant player. The only other is a network of several regional flyers, managed by the Federal Reserve. We fly wingtip to wingtip with what is largely a very redundant system.”
Still, just as other segments of the airline industry are undergoing significant changes, Biggerstaff expects AirNet’s little corner of the aviation world will have to adapt, due in most part to the incursion of the electronic age. Just as video conferencing has made mandatory cross-country business meetings a thing of the past for many companies, thus reducing business travel in the passenger segment, the progress of electronic transmission has begun to reduce the need to physically fly financial documents door-to-door. Check usage peaked in the late-1980s and early-‘90s, but has fallen 20 percent since.
“The issue for AirNet is the still-evolving means of presentment that now and in the future will occur more frequently desktop-to-desktop,” Biggerstaff says.
It won’t be the first time that AirNet’s senior management team has had to reevaluate the company’s near- and long-term goals. Biggerstaff recalls when he joined AirNet in 1999, the overall plan was to evolve into a FedEx-like company “that moved small package shipments on a regular basis, using commercial airlines to eventually create our own network. But we were going to be quicker than FedEx, moving volumes of small packages on a national basis more quickly than any other network.”
However, management just didn’t do particularly well in the execution of that initiative, Biggerstaff admits. So he worked closely with company founder Jerry Mercer to refocus on pursuing a strategy for AirNet “to try to be … what AirNet should be. We decided to build our future around the strong operating competencies that we had developed over the past 30 years, primarily in service of financial institutions, but that were transferable to the needs of other shippers of time-sensitive or specialized goods."
“We are operationally driven, as demonstrated by the quality of maintenance of our aircraft,” Biggerstaff says. “We have significant up time and are truly cost effective in the types of equipment that we operate. In fact, and in anticipation of offering our services to government entities, we were recently audited by the Department of Defense (DOD) and were recognized for the strength of our maintenance and safety processes.”
AirNet Vice President of Operations Steve Lister recalls that December 2001 audit as “ one of the toughest acid tests in my career,” but AirNet is now one of the few FAR 135 carriers DOD approves to fly government-related passengers. A DOD audit, as characterized by Lister, “is a pretty stringent process, to say the least. Government inspectors evaluate an airline on processes, documented and defined; they assess your culture.”
In addition, what Biggerstaff defines as “pilot production” plays a major role in AirNet’s overall growth scenario. “We are a primary developer of some of the best pilots in commercial aviation, who are intent on gaining the benefit of our training and development. Then, many move on to regional, fractional or commercial opportunities.”
He lauds AirNet’s other proficiencies as well, not the least of which is its dispatch resource. Citing “impressive recovery capabilities honed around weather or other systems interruptions for over 28 years,” Biggerstaff says AirNet is proud of helping to keep the nation’s financial processes functioning smoothly. He’s also confident AirNet and its employees are well positioned for any challenge the industry or economy might bring forth. “We have financial stability and a strong balance sheet,” he points out, “in an industry that will undergo significant changes over the next five years. Opportunities are going to emerge for companies with the resources necessary to evaluate and seize upon what the market offers.” To take advantage of those opportunities, Biggerstaff plans to diversify AirNet even further into niches “that require the same kind of time sensitivity, rapid transit, and special handling that we do now for the financial industry.”
As part of that initiative, AirNet’s on-demand passenger charter efforts began in earnest shortly after 9/11, and Biggerstaff says the company is “very serious about being a player” in the industry. Currently, there are seven passenger-configured jets on AirNet’s operating certificate. “We’ll create a footprint of assets, supported by our operating capabilities, and intend to become a leading provider,” he states. “We operate Lear maintenance bases around the country that are recognized as very high quality, and coupled with AirNet’s great pilots, allow for the best-in-class service to a very demanding clientele.”
On the cargo side, AirNet also has identified certain growth within the medical markets, transporting, among other products, time-sensitive radioactive isotopes, medical treatments, and diagnostics. Biggerstaff claims the critical time constraints, special handling, and detailed reporting required for those products “are not received on a friendly basis by the commercial airlines.” He identifies limited schedules, extended tendering times, and package inspections as obstacles for the majors, then adds, “speed and flexibility are needed in this genre, and AirNet has both.”
Of course, it’s one thing to talk about that tried-and-true axiom of commerce: “identify a need and fill it;” it’s quite another to do it. “The biggest challenge of the next two to three years will be to transition to meet the demands of a new set of customers,” Biggerstaff admits. “We’ve been an airline configured to bank customers. We’ll have to undoubtedly change our core process and structure to serve the needs of our evolving customer base, and of course, that will mean other cultural, labor, and operational adaptations.”
Approximately 60 percent of the freight AirNet handles each day passes through its central hub at CMH, but Biggerstaff says, “the word, ‘hub,’ has significantly different meaning here than at most carriers. We have several hubs that are much smaller than Columbus, but it all works to create speed and movement of goods, while maintaining quality of service.”
AirNet’s work schedule alternatives are and will continue to be varied for its pilot group, but the basic freight system requires four nights per week, typically Tuesday through Friday. A three-day weekend normally is associated with that timeline, while additional five-day schedules do exist. “Our aggressive entry into the on-demand passenger and cargo charter business will mean some pilots are subject to 24-hour call and highly variable work activities in the future,” Biggerstaff says.
Both Biggerstaff’s and Lister’s offices overlook the bustling AirNet staging area in Columbus and when time permits, both men like to interact with pilots, mechanics, and ramp workers. “I love to get out amongst the team and walk the ramp, to see and be a part of the ebb and flow of the work here,” Lister says.
It’s not just observation, but honest-to-goodness involvement that characterizes both Lister’s and Biggerstaff’s management style, for at AirNet, the management team is expected to log a minimum 10 hours flying time in the system each month. “We mix with the people, the pilots, get a first-hand view of the activity that keeps this airline going,” Lister explains. “We see that we’re unloading in a safe fashion and that we’re carrying on safe conduct. It’s all a part of being more visible overall.”
AirNet also “is a fun place to work,” he attests, where the energy “comes from within, not by the stick.” As proof, Lister calls attention to the relatively low rate of turnover among AirNet employees. “It’s been an unusually consistent core that’s stayed with the company from the early days.”
Lister is equally proud of the way AirNet’s pilot group is treated by the company. “AirNet has provided and will continue to provide the environment, work experience, and opportunity for pilots to develop a successful career in aviation.” In the meantime, he adds, “they’ll be with a company that doesn’t take them, or their current experience for granted.”
AirNet has a history of rewarding its own, even during times of extraordinary trial or duress. That treat-‘em-as-people, not-as-numbers philosophy will remain intact as long as Lister is at AirNet, he insists.
“I believe you can trust only in yourself to do the right thing toward others. I wake up every day and I want to do the right thing by every individual. Sure, every company has to have policies, and we aren’t exempt. But we foster good pilot communication and that enables us to consistently do what we all feel is best. Management is committed to providing excellent service to its customers and that is most easily accomplished through a collaborative working relationship with its work force. We’ve got some of the best quality and best trained professionals in the industry.”
Lister is lighthearted when talking about the omnipresent issue of safety, and says he has absolutely no worries about flying on his own airline, which he does frequently, just to stay in touch with “the vibe.”
“In spite of well-known aviation safety statistics and being a pilot myself, I still give thought to my personal safety every time I get on any flight,” Lister says. “But because I know my own commitment to safety and our own consistent processes, I never think twice about jumping aboard an AirNet flight.”
OUTLOOK
AirNet had an unassuming start back in 1974, when founder Jerry Mercer used a lone Beech Baron to fly a few parcels a night under the name PDQ Air Service for a bank in northern Michigan.
Mercer relocated PDQ (People Delivering Quality) to CMH in 1980, mainly because the airport is rarely closed due to weather and is situated within about one hour by jet to 80 percent of the nation’s major banking centers. He renamed the company Financial Air Express in 1984, then changed it again in 1989 to U.S. Check. The final name change to AirNet Express came in 1996, when parent AirNet Systems Inc. became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Within a year, AirNet moved to the New York Stock Exchange, which provides the company a higher profile venue, and on June 3, 1997, it began trading there. In August 1999, Mercer handed over most of the responsibilities of day-to-day operations to Biggerstaff, then in April 2000, Biggerstaff also took over the CEO title from Mercer.
AirNet merged with several competitors along the way, though it recently announced at least one of those acquisitions, Mercury Business Services, will be resold because “its business model does not match our long-term strategy,” according to Biggerstaff. Regardless, AirNet remains poised to further grow its niche “as providing super-expedited service to the cargo industry,” Lister adds. “We continue to fly when other airlines don’t, covering the dark window, filling the need for point-to-point service.”
Ultimately, he predicts, AirNet will transition to providing “super time criticality in a really short window, from pick-up to delivery. We’ll extend some day routes between key cities, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” This could evolve into a more intensive service between the major markets in the future, he says.
Lister is equally optimistic, as is Biggerstaff, about the potential for enhanced passenger charter services, which will require more Lear 60s. “The workhorse for that division.” The company intends to manage more aircraft for customers, as well as “exploring the merits of taking a more defined role in on-demand cargo charter. We provide it today, literally without a direct asset base attributed to it.”
What it all means for the pilot community is that management at AirNet isn’t resting on its laurels. Rather, AirNet’s leaders are focusing intensely on market opportunities and positioning the company to maximize profitability.
Optimism pervades the AirNet atmosphere, as expressed by its CEO: “Our company has demonstrated its ability to survive and prosper through difficult economic periods in the past. We have a bright future. When I speak to our pilots, I talk about the obligation we have—whether management to pilots or department-to-department—that we will take care of our company and give great service to our customers. If self-interest predominates, a person shouldn’t come here for a career. We’re into taking care of each other, too; it’s a pretty unique and rewarding culture.”
Stephanie Stephens is a media relations professional formerly with United, Texas International, and Continental Airlines. An award-winning communicator based in Los Angeles, she also is a print and broadcast journalist.
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