Value in Travel - The West Virginia Aviation Conference

Yeager Airport along with the West Virginia Aeronautics Commission sponsors and organizes the annual West Virginia Aviation Conference. This year’s event was held at the beautiful Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV on August 8 through the 10th. This was the most successful conference we have held and we have received many positive comments.

We attracted national speakers to the conference, including, Kate Lang, the FAA Deputy Administrator, Mike Boyd, President of The Boyd Group, Henry Ogrodzinski, President of the National Association of Aviation Officials, Joe Esposito, Director of Schedule Planning for Delta Air Lines, Lisa Piccione, VP of Government Affairs for National Business Aviation Association, as well as Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, and Governor Joe Manchin and Senator Rockefeller addressed the conference via video because of his need to be in Washington. Each person provided a unique perspective on various hot topic issues in aviation. The conference all so provided sessions on current legal issues, trends in engineering practices and a very informative session on airport emergency response systems.

Attendees from airports in West Virginia, engineering firms, and suppliers, pilots, authority board members, congressional staff members, air traffic controllers, and state officials all were able to learn from the presenters and interact with others from the West Virginia Aviation community. I was told many years ago that when attending a conference that many times the best information is picked up in the hallway or at a reception when talking with a colleague. That was very good advice and very true.

My main point in this post is just not to brag a little about what a great conference the West Virginia Aviation Conference is and to encourage others to attend this wonderful event that is the best value of any conference, but to encourage business related travel in general. In tough economic times, many entities cut travel and training budgets first. In my opinion that is short sighted and pennywise but pound foolish. Business grow when their most valuable resources, their employees, are equipped with fresh ideas and approaches to the business and can implement innovative ideas that will grow the business, and or produce real cost savings that make the business more productive.

Customer Service - Above and Beyond

The title of the e-mail was one that you dread to open… “To the Manager of “Employee A” I saw in the distribution list that most of the airport staff had been copied on this e-mail, and the employee, who works at the airport does not work for the airport authority. I was very pleasantly surprised when I read the long detailed e-mail from a passenger that praised the airline employee for going above and beyond to accommodate the passenger due to a weather flight cancellation.

Now those of you that are frequent travelers know that weather cancellations can really disrupt travel plans, especially if the weather is at the hub site. Due to the domino effect of massive schedule disruptions because of weather it is not easy to accommodate a passenger with a schedule change.

The e-mail that I read described an employee of Regional Elite, the service company that provides customer service (above the wing) and flight services (below the wing) for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines at Yeager Airport, that went the extra mile to find a flight connection that enabled the passenger to arrive home in Vancouver, BC the day she was scheduled.

I passed along the e-mail to the President of Regional Elite and the local Station Manager, so that the employee could be recognized for exemplary service. We have a group of dedicated employees at the airport that strive to provide quality customer service even in difficult circumstances. The examples of veteran employees serve as an example to younger employees on the culture of caring that we have at Yeager Airport.

Our police log over the weekend contained two additional examples of employees at the airport doing something that would be considered extraordinary at a large airport, but it was just doing the right thing in West Virginia. Another Regional Elite employee found a purse with more than $2,000 in cash left in a restroom and turned it over to the police to find the owner. Another airport employee found $80.00 cash on the floor and the police was able to return it to its rightful owner.

I believe that genuine caring for your fellow man is a bedrock value of most West Virginians. One advantage of traveling through a smaller regional airport, such as Yeager, is that the traveler is not just treated as another passenger to process, but rather as a person that is special and unique and needs to be cared for.

Granted we are not always perfect, but as a team, including, airline members, TSA members, FAA members, rental car members, concession members and airport staff members we strive to provide service in a manner that meets the real needs of our guest in a genuine caring manner. We welcome feedback, both positive and negative on your experiences at Yeager Airport. You can reach me at rick@yeagerairport.com