#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE

Beauty . . . A brand new B- 737-900ER delivered to United Airlines is parked in front of Boeing's newly expanded 737 delivery center, Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, at Boeing Field in Seattle.

    Unless you are sending letters and packages from Mars, you probably have a favorite story about an encounter with the post office no matter where you are in the world.
For the purposes of this story, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is the focus.
     It should be noted that historically the USPS has lost money every year since the Stage Coach carried the mail—in fact, it has rarely, if ever, made any money since its inception.
     The USPS was never set up to make money, and political appointees have always run the US Postal Service.
     As an aside, the campaign director of the sitting President of the United States was most often named Postmaster General as a reward for piloting his boss into the White House.
     A quick look around the nationwide USPS facilities built during the New Deal years (1933-1945) reveals cornerstones bearing the name ‘James Farley, Postmaster.’
     Big Jim Farley directed Franklin Roosevelt’s successful presidential campaigns that got FDR elected (four times).
     Today, the USPS struggles with its image and losses while a new generation of managers valiantly work to make sense out of generations where doing business as usual was, oftentimes, unusual.

First, A Favorite Postal Story
      
     A postal customer at the window is mailing a submission for a national poetry contest. The postal clerk is typing away, entering information into the system for the mailing.
     The clerk asks: “So how much is this poetry worth if lost?
     “Only my heart and soul!” is the reply.
     “OK,” the clerk says, “I’m just gonna go with a hundred dollars…”

 

Going Postal

    For the airline business, “Going Postal” is both emotional and essential. Never forget that in the U.S. and throughout Europe, when flag carriers were first founded they were dependent (in whole or in part) upon monies earned from carrying mail at a per-mile stipend. Mail made the airline business viable whilst establishing air mail and flag airline services across countries and around the world.
     In the U.S. today, while mail and other traffic from USPS accounts for a good deal less revenue throughput, that stream (especially in 2015) is nothing to sneeze at.

 

A Great Dane Delivers Mail

    Jacob Nielsen is senior manager, Postal Network Optimization & Performance at United Airlines.
     FlyingTypers talked to Jacob recently and the conversation was revealing.
     UA is on top of their game by any measure, and when it comes to postal matters is definitely not mailing it in.
     “Air mail is United Cargo’s most important product category after general freight, so it has great strategic importance.
     “It also has great historical relevance, since the first flight of what became United Airlines nearly 90 years ago was an air mail flight.
     “The United States Postal Service is United’s oldest, and remains its largest, customer.
     “Our relationship with the USPS dates back to 1926, and that level of consistent support across our global network is something provided by very few other customers!
     “Coming to the present, we consider mail a success because we have been able to maintain, and expand, our mutually beneficial relationship with the USPS.
     “Achieving double-digit growth rates—in the challenging air cargo market of recent years—indicates that we’re doing more than a few things right.
     “Along with offering the routes and capacity the USPS needs, we have an extraordinarily committed team focused on passionately working to exceed this customer’s expectations.”

A Day With The Mail

    “I often describe it this way: The mail organization at United manages millions of dollars’ worth of mail—without touching a single piece of it.
     “Our team doesn’t physically move a single piece of mail, but it’s our job to facilitate all its movement.
     “This means we develop, plan, and measure the carriage of mail on United around the world.
     “In theory, it should be fairly straightforward to move a mail piece or package from A to B.
     “In practice, with the scope of our network and the volume of details that must be coordinated to move the mail successfully, the job would be impossible without the skill and dedication of thousands of colleagues and partners.
     “Fortunately for me, everyone involved in mail transport at United is accountable, committed, enthusiastic, and exceedingly good at what they do.”

Teamwork, Pure & Simple

     “I manage a team of ten people in the Postal Network Optimization and Performance Team.
     “But there are thousands of folks around the world—working for United, our mail code share partners, or service providers—who are vital contributors to the success of the mail operation.”

 

Keys To Success

    “The short answer is ‘due diligence,’ which is an elegant term for a healthy mix of proper planning and balancing available capacity and opportunity.
     “The slightly longer version to the answer is that ‘on time’ performance in the mail operation starts long before we receive a single piece of mail.
     “It’s crucial that we complete our due diligence on every contract solicitation—this enables us to maximize our network and sets us up for success on each route.
     “In other words, our first focus is on ‘strategic fit.’
     “The technology requirements, including our mail scanning software solutions and continuous development of our performance management system, are also key.
     “Our team collaborates closely with United’s Load Planning and Cargo’s Flight Optimization Teams to ensure we set our Cargo, Airport and Flight Operations co-workers up for successful execution.
     “Our Field Operations are vital, of course, and our Postal team spends a considerable amount of time ensuring these colleagues have the proper information, tools, and training to succeed in their jobs.
     “We aim for consistency, then gradually challenge ourselves to raise the bar.”

Birth of United Airlines… The First Flight on Contract Air Mail (CAM) route No. 5 took wing at 5:30 am on the morning of April 6, 1926, as six sacks of letters arrived at the Pasco Washington Airport via an old-fashioned, six-horse stagecoach.      The sacks containing 9,285 pieces of mail and weighing 207 pounds were then loaded onboard a Varney Airlines (today part of UA) Swallow mail plane.      The mail was delivered to the cities of Boise, Elko, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City.

 

Looking Ahead

     “Given the importance of mail to United’s overall business, we are open to evaluating any expansion of our postal capacity and network.
     “But we don’t operate in a vacuum—any expansion must be a strategic fit with other aspects of United’s business, including passengers and their bags and other cargo shipments.”



Managing Change

     “Looking back over several years, two major changes have impacted the mail business.
     “The most noticeable one is the rise in e-commerce, which has resulted in a reduction in letter-class mail volumes and an increase in the number of bulkier parcels.
     “The second is the safety and security aspects of mail transport.
     “This includes the changing regulations impacting lithium batteries and the requirement to X-ray or screen the mail with canine teams.
     “These steps are definitely necessary, but they present some operational challenges.”

 

USPS Gets Enough Respect?
      
     “Working with USPS every day of my life, I have a great deal of respect for the dedication of people at the USPS.
     “My view is that there is an untapped potential for greater strategic partnership between the USPS and the carriers that serve them.
     “I think the playing field is bigger than we’ve explored so far if both entities take the time to understand the other’s business and objectives in greater depth.”

 

From Little Acorns

    “Before joining United, I worked in Finance and Operations roles at Copenhagen Airport in Denmark.
     “I quickly realized I wanted to focus my career path on the aviation industry.
     “My wife is from Chicago, so when we decided to move to her home town five years ago United was a natural first choice for an employer.
     “I joined United Cargo in a role much like my previous one, but concentrating on mail operations performance management.
     “In 2011, I moved into revenue management, focusing on cargo revenue forecasting and also managing a key mail technology enhancement project.
     “Eighteen months later, I had an opportunity to blend the experience of the first two jobs and became Manager of United’s Postal Planning and Operations team.
     “One year later, I moved into my current position as head of the Postal Network Optimization and Performance team.
     “I find that I have an affinity for the logistics business and international commerce, having focused on finance in my college studies. I received both my Bachelor of Science and MBA degrees from Copenhagen Business School.
     “So if I wasn’t working where I am now I think I’d be doing something closely related.
     “Even with the pressure and complexity, my wife often says to me: ‘You really enjoy your job!’
     “And she is right!” Jacob Nielson smiles.
     “I was born in Denmark and I now live in Chicago with my wife and two daughters.
     “With a family here in Chicago, and a number of relatives back in Denmark, we tend to travel back there for vacations as often as we can.”

Best Trade Shows

    “Due to the nature of the business, the postal industry doesn’t conduct or gather at trade shows like the rest of the cargo industry. “Standards, innovations and best practices are discussed and promoted through the IATA Air Mail Panel along with International Post Corporation (IPC) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU).”

      
What All Of Us Can Do Better

    “Cargo President Jan Krems’ answer to questions about improving our business is ‘quality, quality, quality,’ so I’ll take a page from his book and say the key to improving the quality of airlines’ mail service is ‘coordination, coordination, coordination.’”
     “I mentioned earlier all the different groups and functions that must execute in sync to succeed in the timely transport of mail.
     “This level of harmonization doesn’t just happen—it’s something the entire team must concentrate on every day.”
Geoffrey

      My friend, the movie star Maureen O’Hara, died on Saturday, October 24, at age 95. She passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Boise, Idaho.
      Maureen made lots of movies—in fact, she was probably in more hits than anyone else of her time. Her notable movies include How Green Was My Valley, Miracle on 34th Street, The Quiet Man, and scores more.
     She was a real beauty, body and soul.

Travels With Charlie

     While we of course knew her film oeuvre, we knew her best from aviation circles. She was married to Charlie Blair Jr., the former chief pilot at Pan Am and aviator extraordinaire who once flew a P51 Mustang from New York to Europe. If memory serves, he still holds the speed record for a single-engine piston aircraft flight across the pond.
     Charlie and Maureen started up a flying boat airline called Antilles Air Boats and flew schedules around the Caribbean for many years.
     They also secured the last big 1930s-era flying boat: a Sikorsky VS-44A, built in 1937, which once belonged to American Export Airlines. They flew the thing all the way across the Atlantic to Ireland.
     Charlie was killed in 1978 when a Grumman Goose he was piloting cartwheeled on landing near St. Croix.

First Female Airline CEO

     Charlie’s problems may have been over in an instant, but Maureen was left in debt, with an airline to operate, and of course in shock at having lost the love of her life.
     As the first woman in the world to be the CEO of an operating scheduled airline, Maureen showed the skill and determination to not only operate the company, but also bring the business to profit. She eventually sold the airline off to another company, which operated the flying boat service on the Miami Causeway for many years.
     Maureen had Charlie’s beloved VS-44A sent back to Sikorsky in Connecticut, where it was lovingly restored. Today it sits in a place of pride at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

Luck Of The Irish

     Fast forward to 1980. I am sitting in my office at LaGuardia Field when suddenly the place is full of people from Foynes, Ireland.
     Foynes was at the dawn of trans-Atlantic air service—the first landfall by air from America—and was, up until the outbreak of WWII, where the Pan Am Clippers from New York first landed, bound for Southampton England.
     That day the Irish told me they want to start an air museum, so we spent a couple of days together. I took them out to Port Washington, where the first New York-to-Europe flights via Foynes began in 1939, brought them home for dinner, and called my friend, LaGuardia Airport Manager Tim Peirce for guidance on how we could help.
     Tim knew right away what to do and engineered to have our airport Kiwanis Club honor Maureen O’Hara at a gala black-tie dinner. The money raised would go to the Irish to start their museum.
     Maureen showed up, stayed late, attended the after party, stayed later, and was simply superb.
     All during the dinner I kept hounding Harris Herman, the Pan Am Shuttle boss at the time, to give up a pass so Maureen could fly to Boston to see her grandkids the next day.
     Of course, ever obliging, Harris took care of business.

About John Wayne

     The next morning at 0500 I jumped into the car and went over to the Pan Am Shuttle at the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia and ran up to the VIP hold room to turn up the heat, expecting Maureen for the 0730 take off.
     Thinking I should get some coffee, I headed toward Rocky’s place inside the MAT.
     All of a sudden I spotted a tall lady with bright red hair and knew at once it was Maureen.
     “Oh, it’s you,” we both said at the same time. I escorted her into the Pan Am lounge room.
     We sat and talked undisturbed for about 15 minutes. Stories unfolded of her time flying all over hell with Charlie, as an airline boss and life thereafter, and how glad she was to help the people from Foynes.
     Boldly, I asked her to tell me something about her frequent co-star in so many great movies, John Wayne. Bolder still, and perhaps pressing my Irish luck, I asked for something no one had ever been told.
     She made me promise not to repeat the following until after she was gone.
     “The last phone call from Duke,” Maureen said, “was just toward the end, when he sounded very hollow and weak.
     “He said to me: ‘Why did this happen to me?’
     “All these years later, I still think about that call often, and how his voice sounded—that big, strapping man who was so strong and full of life.
     “He dragged me around like a rag doll in The Quiet Man and here he was, stricken and weak and wondering ‘why me?’”
     The look on Maureen’s face was sympathetic, thoughtful, and resolute.

One Strong Lady

     Effusive, talented people fluttered around Maureen like moths silently serenading a lamppost. I learned after a few face-to-face visits with her that she was stronger than most anyone.
     Moments after talking in such sweet, honest, emotional terms about “Duke,” dear Tim showed up with a half-dozen ramp rats and Maureen was off to the races, signing autographs and shaking hands all around.
     I must admit, along the trail of my 74 years, it has been my privilege to meet and even get to know some pretty special people.
     But for the few months we worked to raise money for what is now the wonderful Irish National Air Museum in Foynes, I always think back to how wonderful and down to earth was the high-flying lady, Maureen O’Hara.
     We thought about her again in 2013 when the St. Thomas (Virgin Islands) seaplane terminal was formally dedicated to Capt. Charles F. Blair Jr.
     Charlie was great, and Maureen kept his life and legend alive long enough for the rest of the world to catch up.
     She was a very strong lady.

Fond Farewell

     Now, these many years later, we say goodbye to a life well lived with a lovely 95th birthday tribute and J.R.R. Tolkien’s words:
     “May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.”
    
Geoffrey