A NEW JOB TO LEARN #53

Before I could relocate to New York, I had to prepare the Detroit office for a new District Manager. Everything had to be inventoried; if there were any differences between the inventory that was given me when I took over and what I was passing on to the new manager, it would have to be explained. All moneys and the blank ticket stock on hand had to be accounted for. After all that, the incoming manager then had to sign his acceptance of the office.

I was happy to learn that the new manager was to be Wolter Witholt; Wolter was a Dutch employee who I had met several times; we had even participated together in a sales seminar in Holland. Wolter was being promoted from being a Sales Representative. An interesting fact about him was that he had been a freedom fighter, in Holland, during the war. Often he had to smuggle guns between resistance groups who were fighting the German occupation troops in his country. He was a young boy who would many times ride his bike past the German occupiers with a rifle stuck down his pant leg. I don't know if I would have had the same courage.

When Wolter arrived, we spent a few day together, out in the field, meeting travel agents and commercial accounts. Wolter also needed to find a place to live. I showed him the small home that I had in the suburbs and he agreed to rent it from me when I left. I got a big surprise when the Dutch Immigrant Society said that they wanted to give me a farewell dinner in Grand Rapids. I had become quite close with this organization over the five years I worked with them. At the dinner, John Witte presented me a gold watch, with a suitable inscription on the back. I still own the watch; it no longer runs, but I have kept it anyway.

With all the events in Detroit taken care of, I had to find a place to live in New York. The other two years previously spent there, were on a temporary basis, and KLM had paid my hotel bill. Now, I needed to find an apartment, hopefully near the office. After much searching, I settled on a single bedroom apartment on Park Ave and 34^th Street. It looked out on Park Avenue and was on the 20^th floor. The apartment had a good sized living room, a bedroom and a small but adequate kitchen. Once I brought a few items from Detroit, it was very comfortable. The rent was $210.00 per month, which back in 1971 was expensive; I would bet that today, if you could find it, it would rent for a thousand or more.

With accommodations settled, I was happy to get started in my new position. I took the time to spend several hours meeting with my staff on an individual basis. Fortunately, I had a passing relationship with all of them as I had met them all at one time or another, during the previous two years I was in New York. During the first days, I also visited with Tubby Walker, the Company's attorney who had been a CAB executive prior to joining KLM. I told Tubby that I wanted to work closely with him to be sure we conformed to all the regulations. The last thing I wanted to do was cost KLM their landing rights. I had a good deal of experience working with charters, but the industry was growing and new rules and regulations were being made on a regular basis. Tubby acquainted me with all copies of CAB rulings and changes in their regulations. I found this to be very helpful. Tubby Walker was sure to call me to his office and discuss any new things that he believed I should know. Over time we became good friends, and we often lunched together.

Since Fritz Kielman, KLM's USA head, wanted to expand charter sales, I felt that it was important to visit each office to determine their ability and understanding to go out and sell charters in their districts. From the questions that came from the field, our staff felt that our sales people shied away from selling charters as they sometimes were afraid they didn't have enough knowledge. I could appreciate that, as I recalled the learning curve I had in the beginning. I was also getting calls from District Managers asking me if I could make a joint call on a potential client in their district, who wanted to charter an aircraft. I decided to sit down and make a schedule to visit every office. I asked Margret, my secretary, to call each manager to see when they would be available to sit down with me. I wanted to be sure that they had all their staff available, as its one thing to sell a charter and another important part of it was to provide the entire backup needed by the client.

For the time being, the district meetings would have to wait. I received a call from the Charter Department in Holland asking me to come to Amstelveen, where the head office was located, to discuss charters from the USA. I ended up spending more than a week in Amstelveen. Europe was far ahead of the USA when it came to Charters. Every year, the foreign airlines participated in "Inclusive Tour Charters". The foreign airlines did not have to operate under CAB rules when flying in Europe; they operated under I.A.T.A., which is the International Airlines Transportation Association. When you fly a foreign airline to Europe you are subject to IATA rules, they are quite different regulations for chartering an aircraft in Europe.

The home office of KLM is a very modern four story building. Close by, at Schiphol Airport is the maintenance center. I had an opportunity to tour the center. All employees are dressed in spotless white overalls and the whole facility is so clean you could eat off the floor. There is every conceivable facility for tearing down and rebuilding jet engines, x-raying wings and everything else that a maintenance facility has to do. It is very impressive and makes you feel very safe when you're on a KLM aircraft.

I digressed a bit from the reason I was on this visit, but I would also like to mention my visit to one of the most impressive buildings, which was where the aircraft scheduling was located. When your aircraft are flying over the entire world, you have to know exactly where each aircraft is, when it is due for maintenance, checks etc. You also have to keep track of the crew members and where they are, and how many hours they can fly. This is done inside a large circular building which represents the world wide routes. Every flight was represented showing where it starts and where it stops. It shows the exact routes, the stops it makes, even what connecting KLM flights are out of each city. It's a little like a Chinese jig saw puzzle, but the people working in there knew exactly how it all works. It was a little amazing.

While in Amstelveen I was pleased to meet Ad Asselman, one of the local managers in the Charter Dept. I had met with Ad in Detroit, when I had asked him to come to Detroit and go with me to the D.I.S. to discuss their plans. They wanted to increase the number of charters for their members and I thought it was important to bring in one of the staff from Holland. It was nice to see him again; we spent several days together. Ad was very helpful in introducing me to many of the Dutch charter staff that I would be working with in the future. I was very pleased with all that I learned and the people I met. As I left Holland, I felt that I was going to enjoy my new job. We were entering the jet age and KLM was ordering the new 747 jet aircraft for the long haul routes. The nine hour flight from New York to Amsterdam with a fuel stop in Ireland would be cut to six hours nonstop. The future looked very bright.

BACK TO THE “BIG APPLE” #52

KLM's offer to promote me from District Sales Manager in Detroit, to U.S. Charter Sales Manager in New York, came as a bit of a surprise. It's true that I had done well in Detroit; in 1965 when I arrived in that city, sales were a little less than one million dollars per year. Now, in 1971, our sales were running around eight million per year. When I proposed changing KLM's location from downtown Detroit to the suburbs, the other international airlines in the city told me that my idea was crazy; however, it was less than a year later when they were all trying to leave the downtown area.

On a personal level, my life left a lot to be desired. The family had moved up to Island Lake, near Rose City, in mid Michigan, too far to commute from, so I purchased a small two bedroom home in the Detroit suburbs, and once again, I could only be with the family on weekends. It was like the two years I spent in the home office in New York, when I had to commute by air to Connecticut, on the weekends. From a work perspective, I loved what I was doing. Aviation, tourism and the whole travel industry seemed to be in my blood. I was aware that my line of work was not conducive to a normal family life; and I was pretty lonely at times. I was missing much of my children's growing up. It was really nothing that I had planned. I was just following where life led me. When I met my future wife in Miami, I was working in the airline industry, so this lifestyle wasn't something I started after we were married. Perhaps it had something to do with my early childhood? I can't remember what might be described as a "normal" upbringing. Some people are born and raised in the same home all their life, go to school and get a job in the same location. I knew people in New Jersey, who had never visited New York City. I had a friend in Providence, Rhode Island, who had never travelled outside of Providence and was perfectly happy to live life in one spot.

If you have been following my blogs, you'll remember I was raised by my mother during the depression years; we had moved several times, then off to boarding school, off to join the Canadian Army, plus my teen years spent in Alberta, and so forth. About the closest thing to a family life was when I lived on the Buckwell ranch, in Macleod. If you read my Mother's story about her life and her service in the RCAF during the war, you will notice her love of travel, too. I'm sure my love of flying came from my Uncle Albert, who was a "bush pilot" in Northern Canada and Alaska. In any event, my life was what it was, and I can't go back and change it. Nor would I want to.

Getting back to the new job offer, I talked to Helen about the offer and, as I suspected, she was not a happy camper. She was enjoying her life at the lake and thought that at some point I would retire to the lake house. She had no desire to move to New York. I had an appointment with Fritz Kielman, Vice President and General Manager of KLM in the USA. I told Helen that I was going into New York the following week to discuss the new position, and that we should wait until I had all the facts.

On the following week I met with Fritz Kielman in New York. Kielman explained to me that as U.S. Charter manager I would be responsible for the operations of all charter flights originated from U.S. cities. This also included all the paper work and filings with the Civil Aviation Board for any flights originating outside of KLM's certificated cities; I would also have to make sure all charter flights conformed to C.A.B. regulations, plus work closely with the Holland aircraft scheduling department. Another responsibility was to oversee the issuing of contracts for signature of the entity wishing to charter the aircraft, and verifying that they conformed to the C.A.B. charter rules and regulations. I would have a staff that would handle all the paperwork, help with the cost and collection of charter prices, and handle any other regulations. My office and staff would be located at 609, 5^th Ave, in New York. The Charter Department already had a staff of eight employees. I would be replacing the charter manager, who had been recalled to Holland. Kielman said that he was offering me this position due to the extensive experience I had in handling the numerous charter flights from Detroit. He particularly wanted me to expand charter sales from the U.S.A. by using my experience to train all the sales people in the U S. stations on how to sell charters; it was of the utmost importance that they understood all the rules and regulations of the C.A.B. in this regard.

I would work closely with the legal department, headed by Tubby Walker, who had a great reputation in the airline industry as he had been a former C.A.B. officer. It was very important for a foreign air carrier like KLM to adhere to USA air regulations as established by the Civil Aviation Board. If these regulations were broken or circumvented, the air carrier would be subjected to fines and even, possibly, the loss of USA landing rights.

The salary turned out to be a substantial increase over what I had been making as a District Sales Manager. Since I would be doing a great deal of travel between the U.S.A. and Holland, I requested to be classified as an "A" employee so that all my company travel would be First Class. I am 6'3 and I was not going to spend endless hours flying over the North Atlantic in the smaller seats of economy class. Kielman said that "A" class was only for Dutch employees; however, he would give me a First Class classification that would permit me to fly first class. This would carry over to all flights including any carriers. The Interline Department would be advised that any of my flight passes on KLM or other airlines would be as a KLM executive entitled to fly First Class. I also requested a resettlement amount to cover my transfer expense. I got everything I asked for, now I had to learn what the family was going to say?

Back at Rose City, I told Helen and the family that I wanted this promotion and that traveling to Rose City from New York every weekend, instead of from Detroit, would make very little difference. With the annual passes I would have on domestic airlines I could fly to Tri-Cities, in Michigan, and then drive for about 45 minutes to Rose City. I had requested that I keep my company car from Detroit, and that had been approved; I could keep it parked at the Tri Cities Airport. To make a long story short, after long conversations, I accepted the promotion.

Now, my goal was to make the new position as successful as possible.