2024 Year in Review & 2025 Predictions

We welcome back two special guests, Courtney Miller and Brian Rynott, for this episode to close out 2024 and kick off 2025 with their perspectives. Also, we open our trivia round to a round robin, with Courtney, Brian, Ashwin and Peeter each asking the group a trivia question.  We all learned something new, and hope you do too!

Given the extensive background of our guest, Lee Brewster, we are able to pack a lot of fascinating topics into this episode! From maintenance training, to aircraft brokering, and the International Aviation Women's Association (IAWA), listen in to hear about Lee's vast experience and learn about her unique aviation career path.

In our first "pilot" episode we are very lucky to welcome Captain Jeff Whiteman, Chief Pilot for UPS! Hear all about UPS flight operations, the role of the Chief Pilot, as well as the many other roles that help keep UPS flying smoothly. Captain Whiteman also gave us some fun UPS trivia along the way, so be sure to listen in!

Happy to have Andy Balser, from Air Partner, joining us to share the intricacies of private aviation customer service and customer experience.  What are the differences and how are both manifested in aviation? Andy offers a number of interesting personal examples and insights from his extensive experience on the topic, so enjoy!

Since Kansas City operates two airports, why not have two guests? We welcome Melissa Cooper and Justin Meyer, Director and Deputy Director of Aviation for the Kansas City Aviation Department to share more about the Kansas City International Airport and Wheeler Downtown Airport. This team makes a dynamic duo on aviation trivia too!  Listen in to see how they strategized their way through the round.

What is a relatively affordable way to take advantage of private aviation in Europe?  Consider an air taxi! We speak with Stefaan Ghijs, Founder & CEO of Fly Aeolus, to tell us how his air taxi business model has taken shape and grown.

What role does an airport take in attracting new airline service? We welcome Nate Lavin, Air Service and Business Development Manager at Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC / KSLC) to share more about how SLC has done it, while also transitioning from a historically majority connecting airport to one now with more origin & destination traffic.

We welcome Brian Rynott to the podcast to hear about his broad and unique aviation career, including a deeper dive into Altavair where he is currently Senior Vice President of Marketing for the Americas. Brian is arguably one of the industry's most respected AvGeeks, so we had to up the ante on his trivia lineup.  Listen in to hear how he performed under the pressure (no L1011 misses in this episode).

Get the inside scoop on Routes, an amazing forum and network that airlines and airports around the world use to plan prospective new air service. We welcome Deanna Dow, Director of Airline Partnerships at Informa Markets, to explain more about Routes and the critical role its forums and offerings play in fostering new air service.

We welcome Harrison Wolf to the podcast as we take a slight tangent into the world of drones and Harrison's role at the Flight Safety Foundation. Aviation touches so many facets, and we were excited to hear a bit more about this fascinating and growing segment.