by Ian Tocher

founder Jerry Mercer started his late-night check hauling service in 1974 with a single Beech Baron and dreams of success. He flew alone between Detroit and financial outposts scattered throughout Michigan and became largely responsible for pioneering the way money now commonly moves around the country.

Mercer relocated his growing operation to Port Columbus (OH) International Airport in 1980, because the airport is rarely closed due to weather and is situated within about one hour by jet to 80 percent of the nation’s major banking centers. He implemented a name change from the original PDQ Air Service to Financial Air Express in 1984, then renamed it U.S. Check in 1989 after a series of mergers and acquisitions expanded its reach coast to coast. The final name change to AirNet Express came in 1996, when parent AirNet Systems Inc. became a publicly traded company.

In August 1999, Mercer handed over most of the responsibilities of day-to-day operations to Joe Biggerstaff, making Biggerstaff president and COO, then in April last year, he also took over the CEO title from Mercer, who remains as chairman and concentrates on investor relations.

Although the check hauling business remains the backbone of AirNet’s operations, Biggerstaff says the company is preparing for change.

“It’s not unreasonable to think the technology will be developed to allow secure digital transfer of most, if not all, of the checks we currently carry. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that happening within the next five years,” he predicts. “We don’t want to wait and be caught unprepared for the change when it comes, so we’re interested in working more closely with freight forwarders in the future.”

He explains AirNet ventured into the overnight, door-to-door consumer market over the last few years, but found the necessary infrastructure to compete with established couriers required tremendous investment in ground support and limited AirNet’s options to grow in the air. Instead, AirNet will seek to “build our credibility as a service provider to customers who formerly viewed AirNet as a competitor,” Biggerstaff said in releasing third-quarter performance figures last October that revealed express delivery revenues rose 5.7 percent for the third quarter of 2000 compared to the same period in 1999. The company attributed the boost primarily to rate increases, although higher shipment volume from its Mercury Business Services and Medical divisions also were cited as contributing factors.

Medical deliveries offer an increasing source of revenue for AirNet. In 1999, AirNet became one of only three companies to receive an exemption certificate from the U.S. Department of Transportation to allow its aircraft to carry increased volumes of certain radioactive materials.

AirNet employs a hub-and-spoke system, and completes three package sorts nightly to service several mini-hubs across the nation and allows the company to match the load capacities of its aircraft with the shipment weight and volume of each destination city. The hubs are located primarily in less-congested regional airports, as opposed to major international destinations, and these locations, in conjunction with AirNet’s off-peak departure and arrival times, contribute to easy takeoffs and landings, convenient loading and unloading, and fast refueling and maintenance. Six AirNet maintenance bases help minimize aircraft down time.

AirNet currently flies 120 aircraft, including 32 Learjets and 88 high-performance piston twins that offer an ideal entry-level aircraft for new hires embarking on an airline pilot career. Upgrade time to a Lear first officer position is about a year after a pilot becomes PIC-qualified on one of AirNet’s piston twins.

Minimum qualifications to apply for a piston aircraft captain’s job at AirNet include 1,200 total hours; 500 cross-country; 100 night; and 75 instrument hours (50 has to be in aircraft, but can be simulated). Applicants also must have a commercial pilots license with multiengine and IFR ratings, and an FAA first-class medical. A college degree is preferred, but not required.

“And the cross country can be airport-to-airport for Part 135 purposes,” AirNet Director of Pilot Recruitment Craig Washka points out. “There’s a lot of guys who apply and don’t have the cross-country time because they’ve only been logging the flights for their ATP, which has to be greater than 50 nautical miles. Part 135 requires pilots only to fly airport-to-airport for cross-country time, so they need to make sure and log all that airport-to-airport time.”

Washka says AirNet prefers to receive initial pilot applications via its online service (http://www.airnet.com/pilot.html), but he will accept résumés sent by mail to his attention at:

Upon receiving an online application or résumé, AirNet will screen and score the application based on measuring things like minimum time requirements, education, and the types of equipment or operations in a pilot’s past. AirNet also considers each applicant’s driving record, work history, and recommendation letters in assigning a score. Washka stresses, however, that a few blemishes on a person’s record may cost them a few points in scoring, but no one thing will eliminate them from consideration. “We look at the big picture,” he says.

If an application meets or exceeds 70-percent on the scoring grid, AirNet will call and/or send an e-mail instructing the applicant to arrange a phone interview, typically with AIR, Inc. Human Resources Manager Allen Nix in Atlanta, although an experienced AIR, Inc. pilot counselor will sometimes handle the task. Competitive applicants usually will receive notification of a telephone interview within two or three weeks of applying.

After AIR, Inc. scores the phone interview, results are sent to AirNet for final evaluation before invitations are issued for personal meetings and testing with AirNet pilot recruiters.

“We provide transportation to our interview in Columbus, Ohio. We’ll use our own system or the major airlines, whichever works out best,” Washka says. “We prefer the candidates come the night before the interview so they can relax at the hotel and get prepared.” An information packet outlining the process will be mailed or e-mailed to pilots with upcoming interviews.

At the AIR, Inc. Pilot Seminar, Forum, and Job Fair at Dallas in January, AirNet also began holding on-site interviews with pilots attending the event. It’s a program Washka says he hopes to continue at future AIR, Inc. seminars, so he invites all interested pilots to attend and meet him face to face.

AirNet typically conducts two to three interview weeks prior to filling each new-hire class, and interviews three to five candidates per day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each interview week. Then, the company waits about two weeks before starting another interview period.

AirNet’s pilot interview process is a straightforward affair. Prospective pilots arrive about 8:30 in the morning and initially sit down with a human resources (HR) representative to complete an official AirNet Express pilot application and answer a battery of questions from HR and a pilot recruiter.

“Those particular questions are mostly personality related—who they are, what kind of pilot they are, but there’s also some questions about instrument approach plates involved, specifically on the approach plate that we will give them the night before the interview,” Washka explains. “They’re going to be quizzed on it, so they need to be familiar with that approach plate and briefing.”

The entire preliminary session should take only about 30 to 45 minutes, and is followed by a written testing session. AirNet no longer administers psychological tests, Washka reveals.

“Then they do a personal interview, typically with me,” he adds. “That’s where we get into the more technical side of flying, with performance questions and questions about the type of aircraft they most recently have been flying.”

The face-to-face technical interview typically lasts about half an hour and afterwards an applicant will undergo a 45-minute simulator evaluation ride in a Frasca 142 non-motion sim configured to perform like a Baron. AirNet expects pilots to maneuver at about 150 knots in the sim and fly the approaches at about 120 knots.

“I think in the last article we talked about eliminating things like partial panels and engine failures, but we’ve added them back in,” Washka says. “So candidates should expect both of those situations when they do an AirNet simulator evaluation ride.” When the sim ride is completed, so are the day’s interviewing activities.

At the end of each interview week, AirNet’s pilot review board, made up of Washka, Bob Baillargeon, and an HR representative, meets to determine which applicants should be offered a job. Then, all candidates are contacted either by phone or letter with the results of their interview. Washka says everyone who interviews will know their results within seven to 10 days.

Last year, AirNet conducted some of its pilot training through external contractors, but recently increased its in-house training staff and now trains all new-hire pilots in Columbus.

“We’re looking at eight to 14 pilots per class, and we’re running new classes every six weeks,” Washka says. “The number we have on the books to hire this year is 100, and our goal in 2001 is quality versus quantity. That’s why I give the numbers eight to 14 per class; we’re going to put only the best pilots we can find from each interview group into the next class. We feel that we’ll have a higher success rate that way and that’s really important to us.”

Initial training is scheduled for six weeks, with the first two filled by ground school, followed by simulator and flight training for two more weeks, culminating in a checkride. The company tries to leave at least one week open on the end for transition training since it flies four different types of piston-driven airplanes.

“Everybody starts in the Baron and then transition trains into their airplane, depending on where they’re going to go fly,” Washka states. “They’re not going to learn how to fly all four, but probably two types.”

AirNet needs pilots. In its most recent financial report, Chief Financial Officer Bill Sumser said that while the company continues to focus on cost containment through process improvement and personnel reductions, savings from these efforts were offset by higher maintenance costs “and back-up charter costs, which resulted from a lack of qualified pilots.”

Pilots looking to realize their own dream of achieving an airline pilot career need look no further than Columbus, OH, where AirNet Express delivers the time, training, and experience required to embark on a path to the majors.

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