(Dublin
Exclusive)McCool’s Yesterday &
Today have been a constant of the Irish air cargo scene
for more than 65 years.
Sean McCool (R)
is pictured with his son Ian at the FIATA World Congress
last week in Dublin.
Among other achievements,
Sean McCool is a true pioneer of air cargo in Ireland.
Established by Sean in
1989, International Airlines Marketing Ltd. (IAM) is
Ireland’s largest Air Cargo General Sales and
Service Agent (GSSA), responsible for over 20 percent
of all airfreight traffic from Ireland.
Now a father and son
team, IAM serves American Airlines, Etihad, Air Canada,
All Nippon Airways, and South African Airways.
Sean's career began in
the 1950s at Seaboard World Airlines (his first airline
job). He later moved on to Brinks (who he introduced
to Ireland) and Aer Lingus commercial cargo, where he
was responsible for the establishment of the highly
successful cargo operation in Ireland and Europe.
Between 1960 and 1964
Sean participated as an Aer Lingus Executive on the
Marketing Committee of the Confederation of Irish Industries.
Sean is a founding member
of the Irish Air Cargo Institute and the
Irish Institute of Freight Forwarders (IIFA), where
he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship for service to
industry.
He is a former Council
member of FIATA, the Irish Exporters Association, and
a past VP of the European Confederation of National
Freight Forwarders’ Associations (C.L.E.C.A.T),
a consultative body to the EU Commissioner of Transport.
“My first airline
job was at Seaboard World Airways, the pioneering all
cargo airline that served Ireland from New York,”
Sean recalled.
“I was responsible
for both sales and operations and on call around the
clock,” he said.
“I’d call
the cargo terminal from home every morning before the
night shift left to make sure the transfers had been
made.
“Sometimes, after
the flight came in, I’d get a call in the middle
of the night and go out to the airport to help sort
the shipments.
“It was all-hands-on-deck
back in those days,” Sean remembered.
“On the sales side,
I spent a lot of time contacting forwarding agents here
in Ireland.
“There weren’t
too many of them back in those days,” Sean said.
“I would also spend
several days a month out on the road converting surface
to air.
“That was tough
work and could take months, maybe even a year before
a shipper would even pay the slightest interest.
“It was the toughest
kind of selling,” Sean McCool recalled.
Geoffrey |