Q: What brought you to the ground support industry?
A: I've been a mechanic all of my life working on car and truck equipment. Before I came to Midwest Airlines in 1991, I was actually a sanitation engineer ' also known as a garbage man ' for a local municipality. At that time, my goal was to work my way to the job of vehicle mechanic for the maintenance department's fleet of equipment. But because of the repetitive lifting, I decided to look for another line of work.
I saw the Midwest ad in the newspaper. I knew the airline had a good reputation and I thought it would be a good place to work. I started as a mechanic and through the years was promoted to shop lead, field station coordinator and then to my current position as supervisor. I oversee a staff of 10 who maintain more than 650 pieces of equipment systemwide. That includes road vehicles like vans, pickups and cars, plus baggage tow tractors, service carts, belt loaders and passenger loading bridges.
Q: What are some of the challenges you face in your day to day?
A: Our
greatest challenge is keeping equipment maintained while controlling costs.
In the current economic environment facing all airlines, we need to be very
frugal. We need to make careful, cost-efficient decisions as to how much
we should invest in older equipment. We have to make our equipment last,
because this is not a time for us to be buying new. But we also have to make
absolutely certain our equipment is safe and reliable. The fact is, we do
a very good job despite the cost restraints. It's been several years since we've bought
a new vehicle, yet our fleet works all day long and into the night. We keep
it going.
Q: What are some of the trends/changes you've seen in the GSE industry?
A: Many airlines are now outsourcing their whole ground support operation. They're also leasing equipment instead of buying it. But for our size ' we're a national airline ' it's more cost-efficient to have an in-house staff and own our equipment.
Another important trend is the need to upgrade ground equipment fleets to be more environmentally friendly. That means exploring options that lower vehicle emissions, but are also cost-effective and operationally sound. We do not have the luxury of purchasing alternative-fueled vehicles that cannot stand up to the performance demands placed on GSE.
Q: What are some of the more memorable moments in your GSE career?
A: My most memorable moment was when I first started at Midwest. My supervisor had taken apart a 20-year-old baggage tractor to refurbish it. He told me my assignment was to put it back together and make it work. I had never seen one before and had only a Polaroid picture to go by because we didn't have any similar models in our fleet. I got it back together and it's still running today.
Q: What do you feel the future holds for Midwest and GSE?
A: As I mentioned earlier, we will need to start upgrading our fleet. Right
now, Midwest Airlines is in the process of replacing its older aircraft.
By the end of 2006, we will have taken delivery of 25 new Boeing 717s. Since
we have that process in place, it should be a fairly straightforward procedure
to analyze our ground equipment needs.
