Greg Schwendinger is President
of American Airlines Cargo, where he oversees one of the largest air
cargo networks in the world. Greg re-joined American in fall 2022
after leading the Finance team at health services provider AccentCare
during a period of transformation and growth, but he had already spent
15 years in American Airlines previously after his MBA at Rice University.
Greg is currently an elected member
of the International Air Transport Association Cargo Advisory Council,
where he serves as an advisor to governing bodies on all air cargo
industry issues. As a young and accomplished personality, Greg does
not limit himself to his business, but is also an active member of
the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association, which helps maintain access
to more than 200 miles of recreational biking and hiking trails in
the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Considering
American Airlines’ role in the greatest logistics operation
of all times, i.e. the deployment of COVID vaccines all over the world,
it was quite natural that this was the starting point in our conversation
with Greg. Greg was happy to share his views on this point: “Participating
in the Covid-19 vaccine distribution on behalf of the U.S. Government
as part of Operation Warp Speed was significant. To play a part in
something so critical at a time when there was so much unknown will
go down in history for us. The team did a great job stepping up, as
did the industry, during that particular time of need to ensure people
were connected as quickly as possible with pharmaceuticals that could
save lives. Launching the cargo-only flying program is also something
our team members look back on fondly. Not only did it allow us to
continue to move critical shipments across the world during the early
part of the network, but the program also provided the foundation
for American to restart passenger service to a number of key markets.
The initiative required a huge amount of collaboration across the
entire airline, which has only helped us work better together since
then.
“COVID absolutely helped
bring to light the importance of the air cargo industry. Within the
airline, that recognition has been positive, and Cargo certainly has
an increased focus and influence on the business as a result. From
a customer perspective, we feel confident in the relationships we
have built and are always looking for ways to strengthen them. Whether
through product enhancements, shipping experience, technology opportunities,
you name it, we are open to hearing how we can provide better solutions
and ultimately serve our customers even more.”
FT
expressed its appreciation for the airline’s image and the unforgettable
contribution to the mission. Greg’s willingness to share his
experience in those crucial months inevitably led us to talk about
his role in the company on a variety of topics: “We are excited
for the road that lies ahead in 2024 for many reasons, but one in
particular is due to the moderation and stabilization we began to
see in the marketplace in late 2023. I was proud of how we closed
out the year, particularly around the holiday peak, and am pleased
to see economies getting inflation under control – which should
lead to easing monetary policy and the possibility for increased consumer
demand in many of the regions where we operate. I am optimistic about
2024, both here in American and for the cargo industry as a whole.”
From this statement we can
easily connect Greg’s full appreciation of finance’s importance,
which is in line with his experience and education, but we can also
understand that his perception of the industry comes from a very deep
hands-on approach: “The industry is well on its way, but there
is still work to do in terms of modernization through technology.
Wherever we can more seamlessly work together and communicate along
the supply chain, the better, and digitization is a big piece of that.
I am encouraged by the efforts IATA is taking to lead the industry
in adoption of ONE Record as a standard for data sharing to create
a single record view of a shipment, and American looks forward to
playing a leading role in pushing forward this standard as well.”
Definitely right, we could say, and
if we can add a personal comment, it is noteworthy that this push
toward greater harmonization comes directly from an airline. We all
know embracing common standards has not been the aspect of business
where airlines traditionally excelled.
Greg continued his conversation
mentioning the technology that needs to be adopted for the industry
to thrive: “While I can’t predict the future, I can say
our teams are dedicated to some really impactful projects this year.
Operational excellence and Customer Experience are at the core of
our priorities in 2024, and a lot of that work will be supported by
digital tools and enhancements to our existing digital platforms.
Things like Robotics Process Automation (RPA) and Machine Learning
are enabling our teams to be more efficient and utilize predictive
modeling to mitigate challenges that may arise when a shipment is
in our care. For example, we are able to use RPA to automatically
accept bookings that fall within certain parameters at time of booking,
to optimize shipments utilizing our trucking network as well as to
remove resources affiliated with deactivated customer accounts. We
are using Machine Learning to help us improve our capacity forecasts
and reduce issues related to under and over booking. The added benefit
is that we free up our team members to focus on more complex solutions.”
In 2024 it is nearly impossible to talk
technology without inviting AI and machine learning on the stage.
The natural following subject was concerning AI’s impact on
AA Cargo’s operations, now and in future: “Everyone is
very excited about the Art of the Possible when it comes to AI technologies.
We are all starting to experience the impact in our daily lives as
we interact with companies and participate in various markets as consumers.
We should also expect solutions to emerge in the B2B space that helps
improve the customer experience, drives optimization, and ultimately
unleashes an entirely new era of innovation. Most exciting is AI's
ability to anticipate a customer’s needs and proactively meet
those needs, but also GenAI's ability to then produce relevant content
and solutions beyond the immediate ask. At American, we are certainly
interested in how the technology evolves and how we can leverage these
tools to deliver for customers, as well as our own team members. We
have a couple of use cases GenAI lends itself to as a perfect solution
that we intend to explore in 2024, and we look forward to sharing
more in due time.
AI could also
play a role in the sustainability agenda. Surely sustainability is
equally big in Greg’s employment equation: “I think having
a plan for taking real action to improve Sustainability is crucial,
and I do believe we have seen real progress. At the airline level,
we have continued to invest in a dedicated team focused on helping
us achieve our goal of net zero by 2025 with realistic milestones
and investments along the way. For example:
•
American has commitments covering more than 620 million gallons
of SAF from 2025–2030. In 2022, we used more than 2.5 million
gallons of SAF and were one of the few airlines to report using more
than 1 million gallons during the year.
•
SAF production will take the combined efforts of the private
and public sectors. One way American is helping advance those efforts
is as an anchor partner of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a groundbreaking
program within the larger Breakthrough Energy network that is working
to accelerate the development and commercialization of critical technologies
for decarbonization, including SAF.
•
As part of our goal to source 2.5 million gigajoules (GJs) of
cost competitive renewable energy to power our operations by 2025,
we purchased more than 644,000 GJs of electricity from renewable sources
for our headquarters facilities and operations at DFW in 2022. Since
then, these facilities have been 100% powered by renewable energy.
“As part of the airline initiative,
our cargo business falls under the same goals, but we also have made
strides of our own – for example, our continued partnership
with BioNatur Plastics (by M&G Packaging) utilizing biodegradable
products in our operation. In 2023, we were able to reduce long-term
plastic waste by more than 150,000 lbs, the equivalent of 8.6 million
water bottles.” In a period when we discover that micro plastics
are starting to clot our arteries and start presenting serious problems
for our health, these are statements that we register with particular
satisfaction.
At this point it was impossible
to avoid a straight question on the business, considering our sources
have told us that American connects New York (JFK) and Tokyo (HND)
as the only U.S. carrier operating nonstop service this summer beginning
June 28, as an addition to the existing daily service from Dallas-Fort
Worth (DFW) and two daily flights from Los Angeles (LAX). Greg observed:
“We are really excited about the launch of the new JFK-HND service
in June! We will be offering cargo capacity on the flight and are
excited about the opportunity this provides for our customers.”
Even more exciting from our point of view that this does not detract
from the existing capacity from other airports, which is a clear symptom
that something is going in the right direction here.
We
cannot close this meeting without a couple of personal comments that
we gladly received from our friend Greg: we asked him about the people
he admired over the years, as we believe this is a way to open windows
in different areas of human interaction that a straight business interview
does not authorize. “When I was young,” said Greg “I
met Muhammed Ali while flying through IAH, and at my father’s
encouragement had the chance to speak with him as well as to get his
autograph. I didn’t know at the time of his legacy as an Olympic
and World Champion boxer nor as an activist, humanitarian and philanthropist,
but the man I met that day was a patient and caring person with an
undeniable aura and presence surrounding him, who was happy to spend
time with my younger brother and me in the airport. In the autograph
he carefully crafted for me he wrote a passage, ‘Service to
others is the rent we pay for our place in heaven’. This passage
has stuck with me as I learned more about the man he was as I grew
up. The passage inspires me to continue to work to be the best servant
leader I can be to my team, family and community just like he was
to his.”
This window is open
to human and caring considerations, well in line with Greg’s
approach to HR: “I’m grateful to have such a wonderful
team to lead – many of our team members have been in Cargo for
most of their career, and I think that’s a testament to the
passion our team has for the business and to the kind of culture we
have. While I was new to Cargo when I joined as President in 2022,
I had worked alongside the Cargo business and many of the team members
during my career with American and was able to see, even from afar,
the exciting work the teams were doing. The air cargo industry plays
a significant role in keeping the world connected and knowing that
mission is at the core of all we do and how we serve our customers
makes it that much more meaningful.”
So,
this comes to mind as a meaningful conversation with a solid, considerate
personality, somebody who has taken his job seriously and –
from a position of upper management – has not abandoned the
idea of keeping the line of excitement constant, with a 360° engagement.
FT is grateful to Greg Schwendinger
for his time and for the inspiring comments he wished to share with
us on his challenging work.
GDA/MLS |
|
Vol.
23 No. 13
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