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!