ometimes when out doing a story for FlyingTypers, we chance upon someone who has been around but whom we haven’t seen for a while, and past encounters seem more like the snippets of some dream we aren’t certain truly happened.
Once upon a time we met Robert Uttmark in a small room near a converted part of Hangar 12 at John F. Kennedy Airport, in an office off to the side of an area allocated to cargo acceptance.
     The area for air cargo in Hangar 12 was the tiniest part of a building otherwise filled with B727 and Lockheed L-1011 aircraft. It was a space where those planes had their mechanics looked over, back during a time when JFK was home to that type of work.
     TWA Cargo boss Robert Uttmark was always a belly-lift devotee—both for the steady return revenue and the oft-repeated verse, “billionaires turned into millionaires with freighters.”
     TWA was in terrible, and as it turned out, fatal trouble.
     Management had landed from bad to worse as the Icahn stewardship-era had according to several reports left the legendary carrier mortally wounded with TWA Getaway Tours—a money machine sold off along with everything else not nailed down as the corporate raider exited stage left, reportedly with 100 million or (maybe it was a billion) in ticket stock.
     TWA would not quit, and its people were tough and dedicated.
     But if Howard Hughes was notorious for rerouting a scheduled flight on a whim, Icahn took off from TWA with the ability to ground the airline altogether, which is just what happened.
     Robert Uttmark managed to keep lucrative airmail contracts and other revenue streaming into company coffers despite the lack of much good press or cargo lift in the 1011s.
     But he sold what he could fill, and delivered as booked the cargo that was vital as Trans World Airlines gasped for air on the long slow descent to its final landing.
     The year was 1994, and it was the week before Thanksgiving, November 17, when Bob and I last talked to each other face to face.
     But just recently as I walked into United Cargo headquarters in Chicago, a low cubicle announced:
     “Is that Geoffrey Arend?”
     And there he was, 19 years later.
     “Never Say Die Bob,” still pushing the mail revenue stream, except this time at UA. He has served for the past dozen years as Manager Postal Sales.
     Today at United, that business adds up to about 15% of cargo revenue throughput.
     Now that the airline mail business is online and everyone seems to have an ipad of one size or another, much has changed, but some things have stayed the same.
     “The head of Royal Mail said recently ‘We are in the parcel business, but we also deliver letters,’ and that pretty much says it all,” Bob said.
     “I think that is the case for all post office activity around the world right now,” Bob Uttmark said.
     “Big changes also in electronics in the mail business; scanning requirements and communications have come into being in the past few years.
     “Now every movement needs to be constantly traced and consignments need to arrive on time, period.
     “Handling mail in 2013 is much more a time definite business than at any other time in history, with demands continuing to go up.”


     Robert Uttmark has given his life to air cargo for the past 41 years. He moved to St. Louis to be near TWA HQ and never left, choosing to commute to Chicago to continue his career at United.
     We wonder what he might do to change the air cargo business for the better.
     “The thing that would cause a paradigm shift for the better in air cargo would be to change the payment structure.
     “Look how the airline passenger business operates.
     “Passengers have made a financial commitment when they book a seat before they travel on an airplane.
     “There is no such thing as paying weeks afterwards in air travel as is the norm in air cargo.
     “There are many benefits for air cargo to follow the pay up front model of the passenger business, including certainty and even less shopping for rates.
     “So the moment you book a pallet, pay for it.
     “There are all kinds of triggers to provide refunds, discounts, or even fly for free if the carrier doesn’t perform.”

     “The biggest single reason to use us is our unmatched global network.
     “And it is not just the UA network alone any more; in fact, we carry mail with most of our Star Alliance partners and some additional airlines.
     “What that means is that we don’t just go to, say, Frankfurt as a destination, but we are able to service all the destinations beyond FRA for the postal service.
     “Utilizing United affords the U.S. Postal Service access to some very difficult to reach places in the world as we go into partner hubs and use their starburst schedule to everywhere they fly.
     “We add value, not to mention convenience, to the U.S. Post business proposition.”


     Robert said that he no longer gets out to postal conventions, although the UA director of mail optimization, David King, does.
     “There was a time in my life for those travels, but today David does a great job handling that work, which included an appearance at WCS Doha, where he discussed the mail as part of that track during IATA air cargo week.”
     Looking at Robert Uttmark, we recall that for many years in any open meeting, the guy who talked airmail on panels of airline people usually did so after drawing the short straw.
     But still today Bob will tell you:
     “I always liked it and never minded talking about the postal business.”
     Bob Uttmark served in the U.S. Navy and after his hitch in service to his country, he went out job hunting.
     “I was attending State University (Bob received a Masters Degree in Economics) and answered an ad in The New York Times and began my career at TWA in 1972.
     “I guess the training in economics has helped in my airline career.
     “I am the last guy who would ever undervalue our services,” Robert Uttmark said.


     No, it was not a dream all those years ago.
     With interview and story completed in 2013, I found the proof.
     After interviewing Bob Uttmark in 1994 inside Hangar 12 JFK, I went home and noticed one of those paper badge stickers (which used to be given out all the time at secure installations or trade shows) affixed to the lapel of my suit jacket.
     I recall in 1994 having this terrible feeling that TWA might go away, out of business forever.
     So I took that sticker and pasted it above the tie-rack inside my bedroom closet. It has hung there ever since.
     I’m so glad to see Bob doing what he loves to do and even more so I love seeing someone who understands what a privilege it is to work and genuinely love this air cargo business.
     The sky is no limit for what Bob Uttmark can still bring to air cargo.
Geoffrey/Sabiha

he last few months have been quite a seesaw for India’s serial aviation entrepreneur, Capt. G. R. Gopinath.
With his Deccan Cargo & Express Logistics (DCEL) failing miserably, the good captain even dreamt of starting another passenger low-cost carrier (LCC).

     Towards the end of last year and exactly ten years after the launch of his Air Deccan, India’s first low-cost carrier that aimed to fulfill the common man’s dream of flying, he decided to start another carrier and even applied to the Civil Aviation Ministry for a license. His somewhat tongue-in-cheek explanation was that he had decided to start an airline because he “could not afford the high cost of airfares.”
     Of course, the counterpoint to all of this is that the India domestic air market has been in free fall for some time now.
     “A new LCC that offers low fares with low costs is the only way to make flying affordable again and grow the market.
     “I will do that,” Gopi said.


     Gopi’s passion and commitment were not enough to convince the bosses in the civil aviation ministry, and his permission was put on hold.
     Perhaps it was the right move, because even as this story is being written, the government-owned State Bank of India (SBI is the country’s largest banking and financial services company by assets) has decided to auction a bungalow—No. 32, Vittal Mallya Road— jointly owned by Capt. Gopinath and his wife, Bhargavi Gopinath, which he had pledged with SBI to run DCEL.
     In addition to the property, Gopi also gave 54,000 shares of Deccan Cargo and Express Logistics to the SBI as collateral for Embassy Square, a prime commercial space in the heart of Bangalore City.
     No bids were received for the bungalow and SBI officials have decided to put up an advertisement again.
     To set the record straight, DCEL owes around Rs 500 crore ($90 million) to various banks and the amount owed to the State Bank of India alone is Rs 211 crore ($38 million).
     The sale of the bungalow and the commercial property in Bangalore would not be enough to cover the dues.
     While the cover price for the bungalow has been put at Rs 32 crore ($6 million), the rate for the commercial property in Bangalore has been fixed at Rs 28 crore ($5 million).


     A well-intentioned Capt. Gopinath launched Deccan Cargo with the aim of connecting—cargowise—Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in the country.
     On the eve of the launch, Capt. Gopi spoke to this correspondent.
     Reminiscing about his Eureka moment in the creation of DCEL, he recalled,
     “It is a child of (Air) Deccan. I say it is a child of Deccan because of the nightmare and frustration of the logistics in (maintaining) Air Deccan (aircraft).”
     He pointed out why an outfit like DCEL was needed:
     “We had FedEx, we had UPS and Blue Dart/DHL.
     “But their focus was taking India to the rest of the world, not bringing India to India.”


     Somewhere down the line, Gopi started moving very fast, as did his money.
     Though every move was well thought-out and structured for maximum returns, Deccan 360 – as the venture was named -- started operations when the economy was still in the throes of the downturn.
     Deccan’s rates were low—in fact, much lower than domestic express major Blue Dart—and added to that was the high rates of aviation fuel.
     Costs went up but the prices remained low, and this led to more losses.
     Now starved for cash there was no other option for Gopi than to sell a stake in the company.
     Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani jumped in to invest Rs 135 crore ($24 million).
     Even so, things still continued to get out of hand and Gopi finally had to shut down Deccan Air Cargo operations.
     In the meantime, further attempts to nudge getting the banks in agreement on debt restructuring were in vain.
     As a last resort, Gopinath leaned on his old business—Deccan Charters—and started services in Gujarat with an eight-seater plane.
     Once again, there were hardly any takers.
     So while no one ever said that it was easy to start up an airline, today the State Bank of India has moved against two passionate entrepreneurs, Vijay Mallya, who launched Kingfisher with high hopes and brewery money a few years ago, and Capt. G. R. Gopinath, India’s LCC king.
     Both are now seemingly out of luck and out of the airline business, and both are practically neighbors living in Bangalore.
     Although the pair never teamed up, it’s a wonder if either thought that their dreams for aviation were too close for comfort?
Tirthankar Ghosh

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