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, 5th 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment