"The only difference between this company and other companies is the way we treat our customers and our employees.”
That sentence is engraved on a plaque hanging purposefully on the wall of USA Jet Airlines Chief Operations Officer Christopher “Chris” Healy’s office at Willow Run Airport (YIP), the airfield originally built in the 1930s near Belleville, MI, by Ford Motor Company. Healy has made the quotation his own and USA Jet’s mission statement. Not a day or even an hour goes by that he doesn’t read it—again and again. The words were written by Stanley Marcus, whose company, Neiman-Marcus, originally made hats.
“Marcus recognized early on that he wasn’t just in the haberdashery business,” Healy says, ”that he was really primarily in retail, in the service business. He knew that, sure, many people could go out and put together a fine department store, but if clients weren’t treated well by people who worked there, it was just another place to buy things and ultimately, they may or may not return.”
So, what do hats and airplanes have in common? Plenty, according to Healy, since getting buyers of both to return is Goal Number One. “Lots of other companies have airplanes, computers, and customers,” he states. “But the difference between all of them is how well their employees deliver service to clients, and whether they really want to do that. If they do, then you’ve got what it takes to make one winner of a company.”
Healy doesn’t like to lose and that win-win philosophy—with both customers and company in victory lane—permeates the vibrant atmosphere at USA Jet. He doesn’t just wonder if clients are happy, he asks them, via a customer satisfaction survey. He wants to know all the details, even if they sometimes hurt when revealed. Nothing is perfect all the time, Healy realizes, but his philosophy is never to stop trying. “Asking opinions is just one thing we can do to ensure they (customers) return.”
Healy, who has held senior positions at Emery Air Freight, Roberts Express (now FedEx Custom Critical) and FedEx Global Logistics’ predecessor, Caliber Logistics, creatively describes USA Jet’s business as that of an “industrial ambulance.” He joined USA Jet in May 2001 and says the company “has a very different business model associated with it.” And for all intents and purposes, different can be very good, especially for a pilot force that welcomes the “never-a-dull moment” atmosphere.
USA Jet got its start in 1978 under the name Active Aero Charter (AAC). Over the years the company progressed from reciprocal-engine aircraft, to turboprops, and finally to turbojets in 1984. USA Jet’s first Dassault Falcon 20 (DA-20) was purchased in 1989, with DC-9s introduced to the fleet five years later.
The company was bought and reorganized by an investor group in 1994, while still operating as a charter manager under the name Active Aero Group. USA Jet Airlines Inc. became the new identifier for the on-demand air carrier division.
It can be stressful being the solution of last resort, and that fact isn’t lost on the pilots who fly for USA Jet. It’s one reason why the truth is told during the airline’s rigorous, but forthright interview process.
“We handle some of the most complicated transportation transactions anyone can undertake,” Healy stresses, and he hasn’t found many that disagree.
“We’re dealing with clients on both ends who call us when they have a significant problem: Somebody somewhere fouled up badly, and now hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake.”
Enter USA Jet, which succeeds where scheduled air delivery services and expedited ground services have failed. Freight includes not only automotive supplies, computer software, and airline equipment, but even livestock and marine wildlife at times.
“The company must literally ‘invent’ an expedited pick-up from a location that it may or may not have previously been to, inject enthusiasm or urgency into the trucking companies with which we work, and into people who load and unload the airplanes, fly them, handle ground services, and work on the telephones in customer service,” Healy says.
But there’s more to USA Jet’s business model than first meets the eye, Healy says. In addition to being an airline, the company also is tied to the highly complex and efficient Internet-based CharterNet Electronic Bid/Quote network, to which clients verbally tender their shipments. “We put them out to bid to more than 160 different on-demand carriers,” he explains of the privately held Active Aero Charter arm of the company. “Then we choose for the client the best option in terms of time and money.” CharterNet doesn’t charge carriers: prospective customers post loads that need transporting and then pay transaction fees for using the system.
Active Aero Charter is the largest asset-based charter management company in North America, providing air freight charter management/premium logistics services, otherwise known as a third-party logistics provider. Its electronic bidding system is fast, efficient, and one of the first business-to-business exchanges developed in North America.
Perhaps surprisingly, USA Jet competes with other air charter companies in the electronic bidding, but does indeed snag a significant number of contracts because “it has the most shipments, the most carriers, and the most customers, and that combination makes for transaction liquidity,” Healy says proudly. “Our airline steps in and flies at a price that’s been predetermined, but it’s always at the client’s behest. We provide insurance to our contract customers to assure that they’ll have lift when nobody else has lift, a really different kind of business proposition.”
Air charter cargo service is a very nice business to be in when the economy is strong, but more challenging when it’s soft, Healy reflects. “We’ve seen a slow but steady improvement in the past five months, and we’re looking forward to a much more reasonable year in 2004.”
One of the added motivations for USA Jet employees, and especially the pilot group, is the airline’s digression from operating solely as a cargo carrier to that of charter passenger carrier, too, specializing in carrying amateur basketball teams. Freight moves less frequently December through early April, which is prime time for basketball teams to fly, so two aircraft were converted last year to go on line for people-pleasing flights.
“When the freight business slowed we experienced excess capacity in our DC-9 fleet that caused us to consider passenger charters,” Falcon Director of Standards Randy Hotton explains. “Simultaneously, we discovered other airlines were leaving the sports charter business. We also learned that college or amateur teams were often riding on Canadair Regional Jets (CRJs). Players that were 6 feet, 10 inches tall didn’t have much room! So, we put one of our DC-9-15Fs into passenger service with first-class seats and recently purchased another DC-9-15 from Midwest Express. The reception to our move has been great.”
Healy is justifiably proud of the initial reconfigured DC-9 that flew its first USA Jet passengers in spring of 2003. He tips his hat to the Technical Services division that, in his estimation, “took one of those older freighters apart, did a major check, and put it beautifully back together in a first-class configuration. Among all the employees here, you could just feel the pride.” He briefly abandons his executive “business model” demeanor and gets a little choked up about it all. “You could feel the pride. Everybody here took pictures. It brought tears to this old freight dog’s eye.”
To fill its passenger-carrying planes, USA Jet has contracted an external company to “literally line up all of our trips so we don’t have to do that ourselves. They’re making things happen for us,” Healy says. Also, to staff the flights, USA Jet resourcefully trained some A&P mechanics to also work as flight attendants. “It provides us an unusual degree of flexibility, especially when we go to a place where we don’t have service.”
Of course, as with any new venture, the divergence into previously uncharted charter territory is not devoid of challenges, even though similarities do exist.
“We don’t know all that far in advance exactly what the schedules are for the teams we’re moving, but it is a bit better than the ad hoc freight business,” Healy says. “In that arena, an hour before, you don’t know if you have a shipment, much less where to pick it up and take it. With teams, we at least have a week or two.”
Compared to USA Jet’s constant “emergency on-call” status, that’s practically a lifetime.
According to Healy, any sort of advance notice is a real luxury for the carrier and its pilot force. He is proud of USA Jet pilots’ ability to handle day-to-day surprises and unpredictability, 365 days a year, giving real meaning to the oft-used term “24/7.”
“Our pilot training, our ability to go anywhere at any time, really gives us the leg up on the other guys,” he says, “and we know we can handle the most unusual situations.”
“Pilots might fly from our Willow Run base one day, to Cleveland, and then on to Mexico City and back to Laredo, while the next day it could be Kansas City or Norfolk or Louisville,” Hotton says. “You never know where you’ll go and for many pilots, that’s very appealing. Ten cites tend to comprise over half of our destinations. Flying for the automotive industry, as we do, means revisiting cities where plants are located.
“There’s no typical month,” he continues. “Automotive manufacturers change models in June, when our pilots may hit 80 to 100 hours that month, having only four to five days off. In July, when plants shut down for model conversions, pilots may only work 25 to 50 hours. As soon as a pilot is legally rested, he’s on a 25-minute call-out to fly.”
Despite the hectic pace, USA Jet maintains a flawless safety record, a credit, Healy says, to company CEO Bryan Hermelin and CEO Emeritus Martin “Marty” Goldman, both members of the investor group that purchased the company in 1994. At purchase time Goldman promised the company’s air crews they would always fly in safe airplanes and were never going to be asked to do anything illegal or unsafe.
“Some companies operate at the very edges … ragged edges, which is not the case with our airline,” Healy vows. USA Jet has never had an accident, nor has it received any FAA citations in 10 years, but it has garnered several exemplary letters of recommendation, all of which put the carrier “on a reasonably fast track to our 121 passenger certificate,” he adds.
Life and work at USA Jet sustain the fast lane, but Healy, his management team, and all employees know that feeling good about one’s job and company can only go so far. Hard work also is required to attain and maintain success, a fact the pilot faction in particular understands.
“It’s tough out there,” Healy acknowledges, “and that means our crewmembers need to be highly experienced.” He admits a company preference for pilots with “a lot of years, who know and understand mandates like, ‘We shouldn’t do this, and so we don’t do it,’ meaning that ‘We’re not going to fly that mission.’ We never push the envelope, and yet, a sense of urgency and desire motivate us to get the job done.
“It’s why our customers are satisfied,” he continues. “Pilots here take leading roles in the ongoing cycle of our business. They’ll do what is necessary to get the mission accomplished the right way, but won’t do anything that is unnecessary or unsafe. Our pilots place themselves on the line. I trust all of them implicitly.”
Of course, Healy doesn’t want applicants to think it’s all work and no fun at USA Jet. He’s the first to tell aspiring captains that the airline delivers on its promise that they’ll see lots of different places when they fly: “Routine” is not a word that applies to USA Jet.
According to Hotton, DA-20 pilots can expect to fly 50 to 60 hours a month, on average, “but that means there may be months when they fly 80 or 90 hours, and others when it’s only 35 or 40 hours.” Regardless, all Falcon pilots are guaranteed pay for 65 hours a month. DC-9 pilots, on the other hand, average about 45 hours a month, he says, with first officers guaranteed 55 hours pay and captains guaranteed 45 hours pay each month.
USA Jet’s most senior captain has 20 years with the company, while several have more than 15 years. “We rotate through the board; after four or five days off, you’re back on the board,” Hotton explains. “It’s all based on seniority. Some want to be first out in the morning, others last. Fly a trip, get legally rested, and then go back on the board.
Seniority allows bidding days off in a line; senior pilots get the four-day weekends.”
Upgrade time to the left seat at USA Jet currently runs one to two years, he says.
“You’ll be in a position much sooner than at a scheduled carrier to make command decisions, to really use your brain time and time again,” Healy contends. “When you’re new, you’ll be called upon to use your judgement right away, but you’ll be paired with someone who has a lot of years here and has already exhibited plenty of great judgement over time. It’s an ideal place to learn, but true, it may not be for everybody. It’s a challenging job, but when you’re finished here, if you choose to move on, you’ll be well prepared.”
Presently, pilot turnover is low at USA Jet, perhaps owing somewhat to the 24-month, $18,000 training contract all new hires are required to sign. Still, “some [pilots] are clearly here to gain more turbine time, to put their hours in, and if they want a life that’s more predictable; that’s fine, too,” Healy says.
The pilot training curriculum at USA Jet is “rigorous and intense,” according to Healy, but, he reasons, “if you’re truly professional, you wouldn’t want it any other way. You wouldn’t want to be ‘under-trained.’ We need people who understand our sense of urgency, who make it readily apparent that they pay attention to detail and have a keen awareness of things going on around them.”
If a pilot is intent upon joining USA Jet and poses questions about the future viability of the innovative company, Healy and his associates will provide the answers, exuding an openness that’s in short supply at some employers. For example, as the business has changed and continues to do so, USA Jet’s management team has rolled with the economic punches, not waiting to see what happens, but anticipating the roller-coaster ride that is the airline business and making alternative plans to succeed.
Healy hasn’t forgotten the “very difficult financial period” of just two-and-a-half years ago, when USA Jet “was almost entirely dependent upon primary automotive clients.” That “Who’s Who” list of corporate giants still includes Ford, GM, Honda, and Toyota—plus tier-one suppliers and their suppliers—unquestionably the top of the automotive food chain, but Healy says he’s pleased to see the airline “busily diversifying its business base, going from four or five major contracts to around 40 now.”
Pessimism about the economy and industry in general is not a trait of those at the helm and in the ranks of USA Jet. There’s simply no time to bemoan what’s out of their control. Instead, USA Jet is forging ahead, continuing to fly on short notice, and continuing to look at ways to maximize resources and grow profits to the benefit of all concerned. For the new hires of 2004 who join forces with this forward-thinking company, opportunities abound.
Stephanie Stephens is a media relations professional formerly with United, Texas International, and Continental Airlines. Based in Los Angeles, she also is a print and broadcast journalist.
