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 34th Street. It looked out on Park Avenue and was on the 20th 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.
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