Oakland Airport - Director of Aviation

Very excited to announce our 2024 Aeropedia Podcast Trivia Champion! Over 29 Aeropedia episodes in 2024 just one pair of contestants got all 5 trivia answers correct. In this episode we let our champion challenge the hosts, hear how Ashwin and Peeter did.  

We welcome Vasuki Prasad who shares insights of his expansive aviation career journey from engineering, to airline planning, aircraft marketing and sales, all tapping his passion for data analytics. Vasuki also shares perspectives about aviation in India, so be sure to listen in.   

How does one get into reporting on aviation, and what does it entail? Brian Sumers, editor of "The Airline Observer" and co-host of "The Airshow" podcast, shares his fascinating and unique path with us!

We welcome Captain Matthew Fischbacher, an airline pilot with over 20 years of flight experience, who shares insights from his career flying in various parts of the world as well as details about sustainable aviation from a flight operations perspective.

We cover a variety of airport topics with Craig Simon, Director of Aviation, at California's Oakland airport. From infrastructure, to air service, and airline relations, Craig gives great insight into all it takes to be a Director of Aviation.  Craig is also a wealth of knowledge about Oakland airport and shares some very interesting facts about the airport on the bay.

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.