Week 2

Last week was a whirlwind for me so I forgot to write. Every night I came home exhausted from learning so much. I managed to get a lot of hands on learning last week as far as answering phones and quoting trips goes. With Denise back in the office and things starting to slow down for the summer both Denise and Clair are able to spend more time teaching me the basics. This was totally not how I expected a charter business to operate. I thought it would be more about people calling in and requesting private jets. Well, it's a lot more complicated then that! They spend countless hours contacting brokers and scouring different websites to search for business. Their continuous effort is why they are such as successful company. I am glad to be learning from one of the best! So to go into more detail, they use numerous websites to search for trips that other brokers are requesting, normally because the broker does not have any available aircraft to complete the flight. So they search through these listings looking for flights that will fit well into their schedule. Normally they are searching for flights around Southern California. Other things they search for are pairs. A pair is when you find two broker trips and combine them to give both brokers one way pricing (cheap pricing instead of paying round trip). For example, you may do a flight from Southern California to Florida as the first trip pair. And a flight from Georgia to Northern California. In this situation both the brokers are happy because they found flights for their clients and Desert Jet is happy because the planes are flying and making money. These are difficult to complete as both brokers and their clients have to agree to the trip. To give you an idea 1 out of every 10 trips you quote actually books a flight. So while pairs are far and few between, they are very exciting when they work out. Another neat thing is when a customer pays for a round trip flight, let's say California to Montana, but they are staying at their destination of Montana. Since the plane will be flying home empty and it is already paid for Desert Jet will try to find a one way trip to bring the plane home. So they may do a Salt Lake City to San Jose, CA. When they book this leg they are making sheer profit. Pretty cool! Also this week, I worked with Nick Sanders a pilot for the company who is their Director of Safety. He taught me about their Safety Management System (SMS). His job is to find ways to increase safety and create a safety culture, where everyone feels safe and comfortable to address safety concerns. He told me that Desert Jet is one of few charter companies to implement an SMS program. The FAA is currently working to find a way to mandate or implement SMS across all aviation industry companies to ensure safety across the board.We also talked about an Emergency Response Plan. This laid out in detail what to do in the event of any major emergency. Who to call. What to ask on the phone. How to take messages. How to handle the media and etc. I have to say I am really learning a lot!

Day 2

Today was a beautiful day here in the desert! This morning started off with me arriving at the office. I was in charge of answering phones and taking down messages for the charter department to return calls. Clair the charter specialist was out for the morning meeting a client so somebody had to answer the phones. Kay the accountant was glad to show me how to take the calls and what to ask to get the appropriate information for Clair to call them back. I spent a lot of the day trying to get all my logins set up for email and many of the other programs the company uses to schedule and quote trips. I also quoted my first trip! I quoted 4 trip pairs from SAN - LAX - SAN and then another from SAN- LAS - SAN then another to SAN - ELP - SAN and finally SAN - PHX- SAN. For those of you that do not know these identifiers they stand for SAN= San Diego, LAX= Los Angeles, ELP= El Paso, PHX= Phoenix. These quotes were for people going to business meetings. I quoted these trips for a broker. All in all it was a good day! I still have a lot to learn though. I am trying really hard to learn all the terminology as well as all the major airport identifiers. I also called several brokers to try to fill a trip for one of Desert Jet's clients. You call the broker, tell them how many passengers, travel dates, where they want to go, and ask for a quote. If it is reasonable and a good company you present it to your client. From what I understand, you do this when you cannot complete a trip for a client. You are trying to gain their business by providing them with other options. That is why it is important you find a good company with nice planes that will be up to par with Desert Jet standards.

First Day as an Intern

They day started off great. It began with me arriving at 8am to be introduced to Denise, the CEO of Desert Jet. She was headed on a trip to Cabo San Lucas for a client, so she asked me to come in early. She was busy preparing for the trip so her husband Rob then took me under his wing and had me help him preflight the Citation Bravo. He showed me where they stored the different beverages and inflight snacks as well as how to complete a basic preflight walk-around. I then had the opportunity to speak with Erik, the chief pilot of the operation. He was very insightful. We talked about how the company does hiring, training, etc... I also met several of the pilots that flew for the company. Everyone was very welcoming. I spent the rest of the day with Clair who deals with charter sales. She is in charge of quoting and booking the trips as well as handling customer service requests. My first day was excellent! Everyone was wonderful and I look forward to learning more about my new team. I would love to share more but my brain is fried! I need to rest up so I can soak up more knowledge tomorrow.