In search of excellence: The perfect flight department.
by Jay Mesinger

After being in this business of buying and selling aircraft for 30 years, one thing I can say is I have been in many flight departments. The types vary greatly. Some are single person, turbo prop, family company operations. Some are multiple personnel, single jet operations. Some are multi-national, global departments operating large fleets with hundreds of employees.

This article is not going to be about size, although my hat is off to those running a large multi-plane, large payroll department! This article is going to be about excellence. It’s about delivering a good product within budget, on time with people who took it over the finish line due to great leadership and their own individual passion to do their personal and collective best.

I have written a few articles lately focusing on service providers growing and prospering by going from "Good to Great". I have written about creating a Village of professionals to mentor and teach those who are seasoned, as well as newcomers to our industry, to be stronger and better equipped to meet the challenges of today's aviation business. This article is about the ultimate torch carriers of our industry: the people that operate these complex flying machines. It is about the flight department mangers and their teams.

One of my new clients, the Aviation Manager for a Fortune 100 company, asked me a question that not only flattered me to be asked (because of the trust in the answer he would have) but also challenged me to answer it insightfully and from all the needed perspectives. Here was the question and here are the answers.

Q: Which flight departments today would be in the top ten nationwide, or world-wide? What measures does the industry use to judge which ones are the best? In other words how did you arrive at the answer to the first question?

Before I get to the answers, let me tell you what I did with the question. I sent the question to some of the top industry professionals in the world. I asked my fellow NBAA AMAC members for comments. I asked the heads of the aircraft manufacturers for feedback. I asked the heads of the major FBO's and finally and most importantly, I asked the heads of some of the largest flight departments in the world. By and large the answers always centered around people!

Here were some of the following answers: To be emulated and followed by others who view you and your department as the epitome of success. That view is about the external perspective and clearly when used in this example represents a company whose inner workings shine from the inside out! Maybe this sums it up. However if it were this easy, every department would be the best with no room to grow and mature.

“Leadership”, was a word used often in the responses I received. To define what leadership is, one has to look beyond any type of charismatic leader to one who knows his or her material; can motivate through education, patience and setting realistic expectations to bring others along with a passion and a desire to work.

Another contributor to this complex question, answered it like this:

• a treatment of the pilots and maintenance techs with respect and a clear focus on the fact they have families and a family life.

• a commitment to the fact the pilot is the final authority as to the safety of the flight or planned flight as well as the commitment that the maintenance tech is the authority on airworthiness.

• support by top management of flight crews or maintenance crews who make a safety-of-flight decision or airworthiness decision that a passenger doesn't like.

• a commitment to professional, simulator based training and use of proper procedures for all flight and maintenance personnel.

• an opportunity for personnel to develop and grow in the organization.

Another contributor summed it up this way: All successful flight departments have strong professional Aviation Department Managers, Maintenance Managers and strong corporate management oversight.

Several large and small flight departments answered the question this way. They measure efficiency that they define as: cost per hour vs. benchmarks, utilization vs. benchmarks, deadhead percentage vs. benchmarks, dispatch rate, and availability rates.

So you see there are a myriad of answers from different perspectives. They all really point back to people. The good news is that – that being the key ingredient is also what this industry has a terrific supply of. Really good people.

I spoke at the beginning of this article about all the many flight departments I have been privileged to visit. I must say that by and large, this industry should be proud of its population. It is made up of hard working dedicated men and women who go to work each day to extend safety, good business practices and integrity in their day to day work life. Therefore to come up with naming the 10 top flight departments would be a difficult task. Not because I could not think of that many, but because I could not stop thinking at the number 10.

So really, I skirted the question. I will not name ten. I hope that what I did do is help you all create some criteria so you could name your own top 10 flight departments! Who knows, maybe out of this discussion will come a formal process to annually award a top ten.

Jay Mesinger is the CEO of J. Mesinger Corporate Jet Sales, Inc. He is on the NBAA Board of Directors and is Vice Chairman of AMAC. Additionally, he is on the Duncan Aviation Customer Advisory Board.