Air Choice One CEO attempts to placate board

IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - Air Choice One CEO Shane Storz met with the Gogebic-Iron County Airport Board Wednesday in an attempt to repair relations with both the board and customers in the area after several issues caused a number of flights in March to be cancelled.

According to documents provided by Storz, the airline had 104 completed flights in Ironwood for the month of March, whereas the airport's normal rate was 156 per month. Storz explained that the problems that caused the drop had been fixed and the rates had returned to normal.

Storz explained that an accumulation of unforeseen issues arose that the airline was unable to get control of, but he pledged that the airline had learned from its mistakes and would seek to avoid such problems in the future.

"When you go from a two-airplane shop to seven airplanes, there are some growing pains," said Storz.

One of the problems that caused the flight delays was a pilot shortage.

As Air Choice One pilots are required to have less flight hours than at major airlines, the company should always have access to a steady stream of pilots, Storz said.

Due to this access to new pilots, Storz felt that the company's number of pilots was "fine."

However, he explained that while he had felt that the airline had been hiring enough pilots, there were some crossed wires in the company and the hiring of pilots had slowed.

"During the holiday season, I was telling my group, my team, 'keep hiring, keep hiring pilots,'" Storz explained. "... While I was telling the group one thing, scheduling was telling the people that were doing the hiring another thing. ...So my hiring department took about a three to four week break."

Storz explained that this meant that when one of the Ironwood pilots was injured - along with the release of another pilot and company's expansion into a new city - there was an unexpected shortfall of pilots.

The company's current system takes 45 crew members to run, Storz said.

As of April 1, there are 45 crew members in the company, however, that number will be growing in the near future. Another seven crew members will complete training on April 15, Storz said, with an additional nine completing the company's training by the end of the month. According to Storz, this means the company will have 61 crew members hired and trained by May 1.

In June, Storz said the company will expand its services to Jackson Tennessee, however, that will put the minimum number of crew members needed at 56 - still below the total available.

Further, going forward, the company plans on hiring at least one class of pilots a month to ensure there won't be future shortages.

"We're never going to get behind the eight ball again," Storz said.

By the end of the year, Storz hopes to have 80 crew members.

In addition to the issue with the pilots, Storz explained that there were difficulties encountered while replacing one of the engines for a plane in Ironwood, taking the plane offline for longer than expected.

Storz explained that the delay caused the company to decided to keep the shutdown of services limited to Ironwood, rather than taking a plane from a different route, given a number of factors including the small number of passengers using the airport and the heavy volumes of snow that the area gets.

"Everyone asks 'well why did Ironwood get picked on,' well we weren't picking on Ironwood. Basically the decisions made on our systems, we try and isolate Ironwood in our system, due to the fact that (the board) told me that you get 300 inches of snow and Chicago gets the weather. So we even isolated before the pilot shortage and everything else because it's the least amount of passengers affected," Storz said. "You've got to ask yourself, as a business owner, if you were me would you affect 80 passengers over here or would you affect 12 passengers over here. Ironwood just happened to be the community that had the least amount of ridership that was going to be affected over that period of time."

Later in the meeting, Storz said that this should not be interpreted as Ironwood was going to be the default shutdown for the company and that the decision to limit flights was unique to the circumstances at the time.

Storz ended his presentation by reaffirming the company's commitment to providing quality service for the Ironwood community and discussing how the area fit into the company's broader goals.

"I haven't given up on you guys. I'm totally committed, I'm not leaving the community, I've got a high-dollar investment and I want to see this thing through to the end," said Storz. "... I still see a vision for Ironwood in our route system. ... I talk about ... Traverse City and the wealth of tourism over there, I don't see why there can't be that kind of potential ... up in the Upper Peninsula."

The company continues to focus on establishing a strong presence in the Midwest corridor from Canada to the Gulf Coast, said Storz, and Ironwood is ideally suited to fit with the company's plans.

He also acknowledged that the company would have to continue to work to win back both the customers who were inconvenienced, as well as those that heard about the problems with the airline. He stressed his company's reputation as a small-town carrier that understood the value of quality service and local customer service.

"These are small communities we are in and one piece of cancer can mess it up for everybody," Storz said.

Several members of the board and audience agreed that the company's reputation had suffered and expressed hope that the delays wouldn't be repeated.

"Overall, our board is very happy with the service that is here ... this was a big bump in the road for us. We hear it in the community, that's the biggest thing. I want to be able to tell them that we met with the CEO and he said that's not going to happen again. If the plane goes down, you are going to get back to Ironwood, you aren't going to be on your own," said board chairman Jim Oliver. "I'm going to tell them that based on what you're telling me."

Storz affirmed that there were now solutions in place to prevent a repeat of the delays.