Five months after his role, Nick Diesel, the appointed manager of Virgin Atlantic Antiran, is looking forward to bringing his experience from the team’s leadership through recovery after birth to support the carrier during the troubled economic conditions and disrupt the global supply chain.
“I was with Virgin Atlantic about ten years ago, but I was only in this particular role for five months, I am still learning,” Diesel told Air Cargo Week. “During my period in the airline, I gained extensive experience through a number of departments, which I think helped me in this new role.
“When I hit the epidemic, we had to get quickly. We were working as it looked like a temporary crisis, but it turned out to be much longer and more tariff,” Diesel shared.
“The biggest lesson you learned during that time was that you can never predict what is just around the corner, and thus you need to focus on what you can control. You can get your best estimates, but it is important to keep flexible and simple plans so that we can adapt quickly.”
This adaptable mentality has proven decisive in the current environment. “In the world of goods, we are lucky to be a smaller process compared to some of the largest players,” Diesel pointed out. “This allows us to be more flexible and experience new solutions that can push improvements. We have a great team, and the speed of technological progress is exciting for us. We are actively looking to automate business and explore tools that will help us move more efficiently and stay in the foreground.”
Prepared for the inability to predict
Despite the current challenges, Diesel sees the ability of the airline to innovate, adapt and build strong relationships with its team and customers as the main success factors in the long term.
“The scene changes quickly, and we explore everything from automation in the functions of the back office For dynamic pricing strategies. There is a lot of potential here, and I think we only scratched the surface. During the next few months, I will focus on understanding how we can use these tools effectively to better serve our customers and improve our operations, “via diesel.
He said: “The political climate, and the holidays of the global supply chain are definitely a major impact on everything we do, but we focus on maintaining flexibility and continuous improvement.” “I am excited about the place we can go from here, and I have confidence that our team will continue to rise to this occasion.”
The possibility by traveling with passengers
Through its location as a belly charging operator, Virgin Atlantic’s wide passenger network provides great advantages but also provides some operational challenges.
By taking advantage of this network, the company can bring goods directly to the main city sites and major destinations, which increases the capacity available on flights that may be empty. However, to make this work, there is an accurate balance of beating – where both travelers and goods’ requests are improved without compromising profitability on both sides.
“There are two main components for this,” Diesel explained. First, how can we maximize the opportunity with the current network?
“We are lucky that the large -scale experienced leaders in the shipping, so we understand that the goods provided by the goods in the financial performance of Virgin Atlantic.
“We have also made a major shift by framing our shipping team as the” fourth cabin “in Virgin Atlantic, along with the economy, installment, and upper class.” “This shift has helped highlight the value that Cargo adds to our network, and put it as a major part of Virgin Atlantic offers, along with our holidays and loyalty programs. This Cargo approach gave a stronger and more prominent role.”
Faster preparation
Another important feature of the passengers is another important feature for charging Virgin Atlantic Cargo. Although the booking window for passenger trips can extend to 18 months, goods reservations tend to have a much shorter time period – often two weeks. The shorter reservation curve allows these goods Virgin Atlantic to evaluate new opportunities and benefit from them in emerging markets quickly.
“This makes it easy to quickly evaluate shipping opportunities in new markets,” Diesel explained. “We are about to finish our plan, which determines our strategy until 2025, and we are already preparing for the following strategic plan for 2030.
“What was really positive is the opportunity to influence the choice of potential markets early. We are able to enter directly into the process, indicating markets based on customer demand, instead of the passenger network team later to us with possible ways.”
“We have also made a major shift by framing our shipping team as the” fourth cabin “in Virgin Atlantic, along with the economy, installment, and upper class.” “This shift has helped highlight the value that Cargo adds to our network, and put it as a major part of Virgin Atlantic offers, along with our holidays and loyalty programs. This Cargo approach gave a stronger and more prominent role.”
The noticeable example of this alignment at work is Virgin Atlantic’s expansion in markets like India, where goods played an important role in supporting the profitability of these methods. With the transformation of geopolitical parking, especially in regions such as the Red Sea, the shipping department performed a boost for the growth of the airline in the new markets.
“The goods are able to reach maturity much faster in the new markets, and played a major role in supporting the road profitability,” Diesel participated.
Internal cooperation
To take advantage of the full range of opportunities in this industry, Virgin Atlantic Cargo focuses on improving its operations through collective work closest to its various sections, with diesel in priority with employees and customers over the network during the first months of this role.
“It was great to meet our teams and customers. Most of the comments were very positive, which is always great to listen to,” Diesel said. “We are committed to ensuring enabling, supporting our employees and clarifying their roles, especially when facing challenges. This level of communication and support is what makes us stronger as one team.”
Depending on his time to work in financing and data, Diesel presented a unique perspective on how to adapt Virgin Atlantic Cargo to economic challenges: “My experience in financial planning and purchases were invaluable in this role. I constantly focus from my colleagues, including a number of people in our high leadership team who have tremendous charging experience.
Serious about sustainability
Sustainability is no longer just a word of tons, but rather a basic principle that affects almost every aspect of operations, from fuel sources to the fleet management, and even the practices of the local facility.
“We were really excited about the success of a 100 percent sustainable flight fuel flight (SAF), which was a landmark of the airline,” Diesel participated. “What he did not mention often is that we also carried a shipment on that trip – not just people.
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SAF 100 percent is one part of the broader Virgin Atlantic strategy for sustainability. Diesel explained that there are two main fields that the airline focuses on reducing its environmental imprint: the fleet and fuel.
“82 per cent of our aircraft is of the next generation, with an average of 6.9 years, and by 2028, once all A330Neos arrives, we will be 100 percent of the next generation.” “While a lot of conversation about sustainability focuses on future innovations, we have already made great progress in terms of the regeneration of the fleet, which led to a significant decrease in emissions.
“SAF production needs to be expanded, and this is something we call at the government level,” explained Diesel. “We support the efforts made to ensure that both pricing and supply SAF are inserted in the long run, so the airlines have the certainty needed to plan for a more green and more cost -effective future. Support our customers with our goods enjoys help purchasing their goals, and supports them.
