ohn Vittas, born in Astoria, New York, in 1944, died February 11 at home in Colleyville, Texas, with his loving and devoted wife Wendy, his daughters Jennifer, Melissa, and Amy, and his brother George at his side.
John was 68 years old.
John joined American Airlines in 1968 as a passenger service agent at LaGuardia Airport. Thus began an illustrious career of 43 years with American.
     During the American years, the most value John derived was from the relationships he shared with people he respected, admired, and loved. From LGA passenger services he moved successively through higher management positions, ultimately landing in Freight Services and becoming American’s Manager of Freight Services at NY JFK International.
     During John’s time at JFK, he was appointed to a select Cargo Planning Task Force to determine American’s future in the air cargo business.
     Later he was promoted to Manager of Freight Sales and Services at Los Angeles International Airport as the key player in bringing about the success of the air cargo plan.

A favorite picture of John (in photo right) with his friend and colleague, AA Cargo’s Vice President, Cargo Sales and Marketing Joe Reedy was taken at CNS in 2008.

     John led the effort to increase freight/cargo sales volumes from Asia to fill American’s domestic fleet of Boeing 707 and 747 Freighters at LAX and SFO.
     Later, with the increasing use of wide body passenger aircraft in domestic service and the retirement of American’s 707F fleet, he became Cargo Standards Director at American’s parent AMR Headquarters in Fort Worth.
     During that time, he successfully undertook temporary assignment to London’s Heathrow Airport, where he managed the integration of TWA’s cargo terminals and employees into American Airlines’ operations.
     When AMR formed a subsidiary entity to provide contract airport ground services, John joined the new AMR Services and subsequently became responsible for sales and services at New York’s JFK and LGA airports, where he formed a management team supported by 1,300 employees and led AMR Services to the top in excellence among its peers in the New York area.
     When AMR decided to divest itself of subsidiaries, including AMR Services, John became a key to maintaining market value and employee loyalty in New York and among clients worldwide and helped to make the divestiture a success.
     John remained with the new global company, which became Worldwide Flight Services, becoming its Senior Vice President before retiring in 2011.
     We met and lunched with John a couple of times along the way.
     John was a nice, gentle man who carried a dignity and decency that you could not forget.
     Two giants of this air cargo industry who worked with and knew John well, and were also at the very top of American Airlines Cargo for more than three decades, share their feelings.

Dave Brooks, President American Airlines Cargo (Retired):
You probably never met or heard of John Vittas. And you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about a guy you've never heard of.
     Here's why:
     John was a career AAer who spent his early days in AA's cargo sales group.
     John would say this was pretty easy living since American led the industry with all sorts of innovations; there was no FEDEX, and cargo sales was a three martini affair in the 60s and 70s.
     But things changed pretty quickly when interstate trucking was deregulated and there was no longer any room for domestic freighters.
     John stuck with Cargo at AA through the 80s and was in charge of integrating TWA's cargo group into AA's.
     In the 90s, John had the opportunity to move to AMR Services, a subsidiary of AMR at the time, which today is WFS, perhaps the largest handling company in the world, at least for cargo.
     That's when I came to work with John Vittas. I ran the division of AMR that provided services to commercial aviation. My first nightmare (and there were many) came two days after New Year’s in 1994 when I learned that no one showed up for work at our JFK operation, and no less than five B747 freighters had been sitting on the ramp for 3 days with no one to work them.
     The only—and I mean the only—guy I knew that I could dispatch up there and right the ship was John Vittas. And he saved our franchise.
     A lot will be said about how fine a gentleman John was. And all that is true. But for me, John saved my ass. The fact that he was a gentleman just made the pleasure of working with him that much more of a delight.
     In his later years, God tested John and his wife Wendy with the loss of their granddaughter, Emily, who I believe was 3 years old, and now has a warm lap to sit on.
     So, who is this guy John Vittas? He was a man who was a proud supporter of our industry. He was a man who you would seek out to work for because he was fair minded and compassionate. He was a man whose handshake you could take to the bank. And he was a guy you could share a yuck with over a beer after a hard day.
     And so I will stand in line to bid him peaceful adieu, salute him, and pray his DNA is somewhere catching a current in our industry.”

Bill Boesch, President American Airlines Cargo (Retired):
I can only second what Dave has said. John was one of the rocks in the organization.
AA had a very strong middle management group that kept all of us who were moving in the top slots out of trouble.
     John was one of those in that prestigious group and he also saved my tail many times. He always backed away from honors when he was alive, but now his family should know how truly great he was.
He deserves to be recognized.
     I plan to mention his name in my TIACA acceptance speech as one of our industry’s finest.
    
      Day to day, across all the years first at American and later as an ongoing pal, friend Gregg Mavico poignantly recalls John.
I always said that in my 40 years at AA, John was the best boss I ever had and certainly one of the best friends that I have ever met.
He will be deeply missed and his passing just reminds us all of how quickly our lives can change and why we should enjoy every day we have and how important the little things are.
Geoffrey

The viewing will be Friday February 15, from 6:00-8:00pm at Blue Bonnet Hills Funeral Home in Colleyville, Texas.
Funeral Mass is set for St. John The Baptist Greek Orthodox Church, in Euless at 10:00 A.M. on Saturday.