As a former General Manager for Northwest Airlines, I know the importance of having your team working towards specific operational targets.
If you are fortunate, the team will gain recognition within the company and the agents will enjoy a feeling of a job well done. Regardless of those who (mistakenly) say that money is all that employees are concerned about, knowing you are a part of something special goes a long way towards job satisfaction.
If so, the Delta agents at CVG should be feeling pretty good.
This past week the International Air Transport Association (IATA) presented the Delta agents at CVG with their Platinum Award. In this day of awards being given for nearly everything, it’s easy to hear about this and think little of it. That is, until you realize just how exclusive this award is.
The Platinum Award is for the crew who reduces baggage mishandlings by 75% and if the CVG team was the best in the Delta system (340 airports), that would be quite the award. But this award is not a Delta award, it’s an IATA award and one which encompasses the entire planet and the CVG crew was one of just three who received the Platinum Award.
The Air New Zealand team in Auckland was an award winner, as was the Alaska Airlines crew in Seattle - along with the Delta team at CVG. An incredible accomplishment and one which deserves to be recognized.
Some have stated that it’s easier for the CVG station to better perform, since they once had so many more flights, of course you can achieve high performance numbers with a reduced schedule. However, not only have the flights been reduced, but so have the number of employees, meaning few are doing more and those few are doing so at incredibly high levels.
Baggage dependability is a cornerstone to customer service. A passenger arriving without their bag can create extreme hardship, as travelers still (mistakenly) continue to check medicine, car keys, important business documents, passports and the like in their checked luggage and the bag needs to arrive when they do. An airline can never be too obsessed with their baggage handling performance.
So, in this overcast era of doom and gloom regarding the CVG Airport, it is indeed very nice to see the employees of Delta receive the IATA Platinum Award.
Well done indeed.
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Jay Ratliff has served as 700WLW's Aviation Expert since 2002, calling upon his 20+ year in the airline industry as a former General Manager for Northwest Airlines.
After being born in Frankfurt (that would be Germany, not Kentucky), Jay's family moved to Vandalia, Ohio where Jay spent his time learning to play the greatest game ever (baseball), by smacking the daylights out of fastballs from his next door neighbor Roger Clemens. (Disclaimer: At 9 years of age, this would have been a pre-steroid era.)
During his high school years at Carlisle High School, Jay spent most of his free time at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Center helping his Dad to build the condominiums at the course for a variety of Cincinnati sport's legends like Nancy Lopez, Ross Browner, Tom Seaver and others. In 1981 he watched his father build the ATP Tennis Stadium for the likes of Connors, McEnroe, Lendl and Borg.
Jay's passion for baseball continued thru 1983 when he was invited to tryout for the 1984 US Olympic Baseball Team. A torn hamstring six weeks before the tryouts ended his baseball dream. (He was able to write about the greatest game ever played for Reader's Digest, winning their Editor's Choice award and having it read by more than 88 million people worldwide.)
It was then Jay's attention turned towards the airline industry, where he loved the daily challenges of cancelled flights, delayed luggage (they weren't referred to as 'lost' until they were MIA for 90 days), weather problems and the always-wonderful Sunday after Thanksgiving! Cities Jay worked at included Monroe (LA), Florence (AL), Cincinnati, and Dayton. It was also during these years Jay was able to serve as the Travel Coordinator for the Detroit Lions - spending his Sunday afternoons on the NFL sidelines!
Jay continues that adrenaline rush by educating travelers with information specifically designed to help them find the cheapest of fares, resolve complaints, and having multiple options when flights are cancelled.
Jay lives in the Dayton area with his wife, Sherry and their two boys, and his older daughters serve as nurses to Dayton area hospitals.
If you have any questions, you can contact Jay through his Day Trading website - he is an avid Day Trader and teaches others on his system. (www.daytradefun.com)
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Mornings on Jim Scott's show
