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Brian - Director Of Aviation - Springfield/Branson National Airport
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If you know a United States Marine, they can't help but be successful. Brian is no exception to that rule. From the Marine Core training working with air traffic control, to a job fueling planes, and then obtaining his pilots license, Brian has intentionally exposed himself to almost every aspect of the airline industry. Now, Brian is the director of aviation for the Springfield/Branson National airport. We dive into every aspect imaginable on his career path and the opportunities therein. If you have an interest in flying, being an airline mechanic, operations manager, air traffic controller etc, Brian drops a ton of kernels of wisdom in this interview you would be wise to absorb. Thanks Brian!
If you found this episode helpful/interesting and would like to support the show, you can do so HERE. Thanks!
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Transcript
00:00:01
The Jobs Podcast
Hey folks, you're listening to the JOBS Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Hendricks. Today we have Brian Weiler with us. He is the Director of Aviation at the spring Springfield Branson National Airport. airport He's been doing that for quite a while. Welcome, Brian.
00:00:16
Brian Weiler
<unk> Glad to be here, Tim.
00:00:17
The Jobs Podcast
So Brian, let's start off like we always do with a little bit of an origin story of where you were born, your upbringing and your early influences, and maybe how you found yourself being the director of an airport.
00:00:28
Brian Weiler
Okay. I don't know that it's anything particularly inspiring. And my childhood, I don't think was anything that spectacular. i I was born and raised in mid-Missouri, Jefferson City.
00:00:40
Brian Weiler
My parents were two state employees, retired with ah over 75 years of combined service. And ah what my dad worked for correction, but my mom worked for agriculture. We had pretty humble background, ah never flew on an airplane, never saw the ocean and at a high school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do.
00:01:01
Brian Weiler
you know, I was working at McDonald's and I let some buddies talk me into joining the United States Marine Corps. And I thought, you know, if I'm going to do it, I might as well go in a full boat and thought, here's a chance to see the world.
00:01:14
Brian Weiler
And I'd listened to some people and they said, hey, if you do it, you take a test, you know, don't go in open contract. So I took, I think it was called the ASVAB test and apparently did well enough.
00:01:25
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:01:28
Brian Weiler
I wasn't particularly smart in high school, but I always was able to like you know i don't know about you but if i'm having trouble sleeping at night i'll i'll build a deck or i'll build a shed or something in my mind so i think i thought spatially and and what where i came out of the test was is that i should be an air traffic controller
00:01:47
The Jobs Podcast
Huh.
00:01:47
Brian Weiler
And that was my first introduction into aviation. Had really, other than, i don't know, just so I thought, well, that sounded interesting. So I was went in the Marine Corps, just did one and done, one tour. Turned out to be a really pivotal experience for me. It it gave me some discipline.
00:02:07
Brian Weiler
ah put me in touch with some outstanding mentors that really helped me. So 19 years of age, i was working approach control at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
00:02:18
Brian Weiler
And I was lucky to have, some really good officers and senior non-commissioned officers that, uh, I don't know about took me under my wing, but, you know, just said, Hey, Wyler, you want to do with your life? And, you know, and thing about joining the Marine Corps, yeah, you go through the booze period and the party period and different things like that. And, and I'm, I'm saying I did my fair share of that, but I kind of thought, okay, what what do I want to do with my life? And, uh, so I started taking some college courses and, and,
00:02:48
Brian Weiler
really enjoyed aviation. But no, that that was kind of my first introductory with aviation. And then do you want me to just keep talking about how I got into airport management?
00:02:58
The Jobs Podcast
Well, yeah, sure. I just, it's anybody that has their first assignment at 19 at an airport in Hawaii. That's a pretty rough assignment. I mean, that's, yeah, right.
00:03:05
Brian Weiler
It was rough. I don't get a lot of sympathy for that. mar and And then you got kind of two parts of the Marine Corps. You got, um you know, recon infantry, you know, gung charge a hill.
00:03:14
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:03:16
Brian Weiler
And then you got the air wing and, you know, the air wing, ah you know, once a month we checked out our rifle and cleaned it.
00:03:18
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:03:22
Brian Weiler
You know, we we tested every quarterly. But for physical training, we did volleyball on the beach. ah You know, I worked shifts as an air traffic controller. I lived outside in town. And so honestly, it was a lot like a regular job.
00:03:36
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:03:36
Brian Weiler
But you still had the Marine Corps stuff sprinkled in there. But no, I'm not going to say I had any really ah tough duty.
00:03:40
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:03:43
Brian Weiler
But when I did When I did finish my first tour in the Marine Corps and got out, I ah was lucky enough that I had gotten some credit hours for my military service through a university called Embry-Riddle, which is kind of like the Harvard of aviation.
00:03:59
Brian Weiler
So I end up getting ah so i went finished up my last year when I got out and and in Daytona Beach, Florida. another great garden spot. And ah so I picked up my undergraduate degree in, it's called professional aeronautics, but I had an emphasis and airport management and air traffic control.
00:04:17
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:04:17
Brian Weiler
And so, you know, it's it's funny. I think this was the late 80s. And I thought, well, you know, I'm going to start out and be like the deputy director at Lambert or I'm going to go you know, run operations at LaGuardia or something like that. So I, you know, at that time, I joke with my kids, you know, as far as I sent out these blind letters trying to find a job and nothing.
00:04:39
Brian Weiler
I mean,
00:04:39
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:04:40
Brian Weiler
like it It was a different time. The economy was not very well.
00:04:43
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:04:43
Brian Weiler
So I moved back to Jefferson City and started pumping gas at the local airport, which I'll tell you is a little demeaning. You know, here I am with my bachelor's degree.
00:04:54
Brian Weiler
um And I really couldn't find a job, but I thought, you know, I might as well stay in the industry. So I pumped gas at the Jefferson City Flying School, Flying Service there in Jefferson City, which is referred to as a fixed base operator. They're kind of the gas station for airports.
00:05:10
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:05:10
Brian Weiler
And I really enjoyed that job. and And I tell people today, because we were on the FBO at our airport today, that that's probably, I learned more about aviation and customer service in that job, because I mean, you're you're literally having super VIPs come in, you're dealing with them, but you're fueling gas, you're cleaning the toilets out of the out of the aircraft.
00:05:31
Brian Weiler
ah But I did that for a year and I thought, well, I got to do something. So I ended up going up to Warrensburg, University of Central Missouri, and getting a master's in aviation safety.
00:05:42
Brian Weiler
And that was another big part of that. And and um i because I was prior military and I was a graduate student, they gave me a graduate assistantship. So I taught a couple of freshman courses to help get the tuition pet covered.
00:05:55
Brian Weiler
And I continued to be an adjunct professor really for 20 years beyond that, but got my got my master's degree in aviation safety. And then my first job out of grad school, I was able to find a job, is was being an airport planner.
00:06:10
Brian Weiler
So I worked for an engineering firm that you work with mainly small airports. So I worked with small airports in Kansas, in Colorado, ah in a little bit New Mexico, writing what's called an airport master plan, which is a 20 year development plan for your airport.
00:06:28
Brian Weiler
And but I always had in the back of my mind, I wanted to be an airport manager at that time. So I was actually working on the airport master plan. up in St. Joseph, Missouri at Rosecrans Airport, north of Kansas City, when their airport manager left.
00:06:43
Brian Weiler
And I was young. I mean, I was 26 years old, didn't really know what I was doing, I freely admit it, but I knew the city manager, I knew the public works director because I'd worked for them on their master plan.
00:06:54
Brian Weiler
And I thought, why not? I'll throw my name in the hat and and i got it. So at 26 years old is when I had my first airport.
00:06:57
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:07:01
Brian Weiler
um I'm now on my fifth airport that I've managed. um But you know did that from 1992 to 94. And i don't a lot of, some of your listeners, they remember and in 1993, there was a major, and I mean a major flood on the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers.
00:07:20
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:07:20
Brian Weiler
And actually, um my airport in St. Joseph and some 20 airports went underwater during the summer 93 flood because it was a 500 year plus three feet.
00:07:32
Brian Weiler
It was so tall. But my airport went underwater and and that looked really, really good on a resume.
00:07:33
The Jobs Podcast
mid-grief.
00:07:38
Brian Weiler
So I did that job for, I want to say two and a half, three years. Then I went down and ran an airport in Martin County, Florida, just north of West Palm Beach on the east coast of Florida.
00:07:48
Brian Weiler
Did that for two and a half years. And then I went back up to the Midwest. and ran the Johnson County Airport Commission up in Kansas City. That's around the Overland Park, Olathe area of Southwest Kansas City area. I ran Johnson County Executive and New Century Air Center, what are which are two reliever airports.
00:08:10
Brian Weiler
I picked up my pilot's license along the way, and I had done an internship at MoDOT, believe it or not, when I was in grad school. And they have a lot of people think of MoDOT as roads and bridges, but they also do really all modes of transportation.
00:08:27
Brian Weiler
It's just that they don't they don't own them. They work with cities, counties, private railroads on regulating them and doing grants and different things like that. So I became the youngest state aviation director in the country at 31 years of age and where I ran the state's aviation programs.
00:08:48
Brian Weiler
And so we ran the grant programs predominantly for smaller airports. and i And I know I'm going off on all kinds of tangents here, but um there are about 110 public use airports in the state of Missouri.
00:08:57
The Jobs Podcast
That's okay.
00:09:04
Brian Weiler
Now, most people think, oh, well, you know, airports, that's like KCI and Lambert and Springfield Branson. you know, those are commercial service airports. There are only nine of those. But there are a lot of general aviation airports. So it'd be like, you know, Bolivar, Aurora, um you know, ah Jefferson City, ah smaller airports that don't have airline service, but they serve the general aviation public.
00:09:28
Brian Weiler
um So I worked with with all of them on improvement projects to do runway projects and extensions. And we built a few airports along the way. And I did that for four years and really enjoyed it.
00:09:41
Brian Weiler
But, you know, by that time, you know, I was married and had four kids by then. um and we needed to make more money because state government didn't pay very well.
00:09:52
The Jobs Podcast
Kids are expensive, yeah.
00:09:53
Brian Weiler
Steve McLaughlin, Is there expensive so was looking around and I worked I worked within a division of mode called the multimodal division. McLaughlin, which ran all of the non highway modes aviation railroads waterways public transportation and freight development.
00:10:07
Brian Weiler
and the division director retired and I was a section head running aviation. So I went ahead and put in for it and was selected and became MoDOT's what's called multimodal director. So it was more of a higher level. you know I worked a lot with the state legislature because I ran the programs that were responsible, were paid for with state general revenue, such as Amtrak, inner city passenger rail between Kent City and St. Louis.
00:10:33
Brian Weiler
ah Oats, public transportation, port projects on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. And I did that for 10 years. So aviation was still part of my job, but because aviation has dedicated fuel tax funding, a good portion of my work was on rail and transit issues.
00:10:53
Brian Weiler
And I did that for 10 years, gave me a lot of exposure to the political world, but 10 legislative sessions were enough was enough and I was ready for something different. And that's when um I worked for the MoDOT Commission.
00:11:07
Brian Weiler
And one of the commissioners was Jim Anderson, who was the chamber president of Springfield at the time. and um They approached me about, hey, would you maybe be interested in putting in to become the director of the Springfield Branch National Airport? And that was shortly after the new terminal was built in 09.
00:11:24
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:11:25
Brian Weiler
And I thought, you know, this sounds like an exciting opportunity. So i i put my name in the hat and was ultimately selected. and And I, you know, Tim, I came down here thinking I'll be here five years and I'll just move on to a larger airport because I wanted to get back into airport management.
00:11:40
Brian Weiler
And then we just fell in love with the community. You know, the the airport's growing like crazy. I've got a great team of a little over 100. I really enjoyed working with the community. And here it is now, you know, 14 years later.
00:11:53
Brian Weiler
And I still love it here. And I've had opportunities to move on. But, you know, honestly, just nothing has been as attractive as is where I'm at.
00:12:02
The Jobs Podcast
When you get older, I think being happy ah sometimes will trump over a little bit more currency or ah a more prestigious position.
00:12:08
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
00:12:10
The Jobs Podcast
Because if all the other boxes are ticked and you're content, ah you're making it work. That's worth a lot.
00:12:16
Brian Weiler
ah Very much so. and And when you go to the the the super large airports, ah there's definitely a lot more politics, um which is fine. I'm comfortable in that environment, but it probably has more to do with the position, has more to do with who you know, not what you know.
00:12:27
The Jobs Podcast
Mm hmm.
00:12:31
Brian Weiler
And I guess I like here, it's kind of a little bit of both. I still get to work all those angles, but Springfield's very collaborative.
00:12:35
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:12:40
Brian Weiler
um You know, we have, again, pulled together some really cool projects. I'm part of the city. But also we're what's known as an enterprise fund. So we receive no local tax support.
00:12:52
Brian Weiler
We generate all of our own funding from user fees, rents and charges. So a lot of cases were run like the business and under the city charter going back decades, the city council has turned over a lot of the management of the airport to what's called an airport board. So they're an 11-member citizen board that are they're recommended by city council and confirmed by, I'm sorry, recommended by city manager, confirmed by city council.
00:13:20
Brian Weiler
So really, um they keep a lot of the local politics out of the airport management. And they're focused on ah running the best airport we can and and being agile and innovative. And it's just ah it's just a really good environment that I enjoy very much.
00:13:39
The Jobs Podcast
I've never met a Marine that wasn't successful when they applied themselves. And you strike me, the guys that I work with that work either current or former Marines, they are just driven. They just kind of start checking boxes and you talk with them 10 years after you've, you know, you first met them and they've got a list of accomplishments a mile long and yours is, it's sounding very familiar to some of the folks that I've talked with that were Marines. So yeah,
00:14:04
Brian Weiler
it's It's funny you say that, Tim. I literally, over the weekend, i still keep in touch with probably six of my boot camp buddies that we went to boot camp 40 years ago.
00:14:13
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:16
Brian Weiler
And we get together every milestone, you know, every three or four years around the Marine Corps birthday or whenever we graduated. And there is definitely a brotherhood. And and I think anybody in the military, I mean, I do look at people with prior service and things,
00:14:28
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:14:31
Brian Weiler
um You know, am I little biased towards the Marine Corps? Of course, you know, but yeah, no, I'm not going to argue with you.
00:14:40
The Jobs Podcast
You had said early on in your conversation that you just went at a young age, you said, I want to be an airport manager. What is it about? What was it about that position that you liked? And to to take that question a little bit further, you didn't have, like, I can see if your dad was a pilot or your mom was in the air industry, or she was an airport manager or something, you know, at an early influence What was it about the friendly skies to borrow a ah phrase that just really kind of drew you in and then you took it a step further.
00:15:08
Brian Weiler
Sure.
00:15:11
The Jobs Podcast
There'd be a pilot. Was that something that you did because you enjoy flying or was it, I need to know what it's like to manage the people that are sitting in this seat?
00:15:22
Brian Weiler
ah it It makes me a better airport manager having worked, I think I counted, I've had seven different jobs in aviation.
00:15:30
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:15:30
Brian Weiler
And all of that, I think, does give me a perspective to understand when we're working on an approach issue to an airport. What's that pilot going to see? You know, if we're working on a hangar, you know, that.
00:15:39
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:15:41
Brian Weiler
Now, I admit when I was got out of the Marine Corps as an air traffic controller, I actually tried to get, as being an air traffic controller at the FAA, um And I would have been happy probably being a career traffic controller.
00:15:54
Brian Weiler
And you know, now today they're they're killing for air traffic controllers.
00:15:57
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:15:57
Brian Weiler
But when I got out of college and out the Marine Corps, they weren't hiring.
00:15:57
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:16:01
Brian Weiler
So i I did not have that opportunity. So I was looking around going, well what else do I wanna do? and And I've enjoyed, I enjoyed being an airport planner. um I never really wanted to be an airline pilot, but I do love flying and I love being a pilot.
00:16:18
Brian Weiler
um And when I worked for MoDOT as their aviation administrator, um Part of that was managing the corporate flight department. And so we had a Cessna 182, which is like a four seat high performance propeller aircraft. ah it's It's like I tell people it's like an F-250, where an F-150 is like a 172. An F-182 has got a bigger engine. It's got better performance, variable pitch props. You can get into almost any airfield you need to.
00:16:46
Brian Weiler
And then we also had a King Air 250. uh, 350 actually, which is more of a corporate, uh, one where we flew around senior executives and the commissioners with that. So I, I've always loved that part of aviation, but, um,
00:17:02
Brian Weiler
But yeah, and you know I'm not current right now. It's one of those where you either don't have the time or the money or either one, but I think being ah being a pilot does make me a better airport manager. But yeah, I've been an air traffic controller, line boy, ah pilot, an airport planner, state aviation director, airport manager, and then an adjunct professor for UCM's aviation program So seven different jobs.
00:17:28
Brian Weiler
Some would say, i don't I don't know what I want to do when I grow up.
00:17:29
The Jobs Podcast
Wow.
00:17:32
Brian Weiler
And I think that's a fair statement. I still don't know what I do when i grow up. But no, I've really enjoyed every avenue. And and I think when... when I never say never to anything and I'm always open to fresh ideas. And, um you know, that's why, you know, I think by the time this podcast comes out, um they'll make a decision one way or another, but you know, I'm a finalist to be city manager now for the city of Springfield. And, and the thought was, you know, why not?
00:18:00
Brian Weiler
You know, I, I don't know. I guess my biggest fear is I don't want to be in my rocking chair when I'm 80 years old or 75 and going, you know, Why didn't you do something? Why didn't you do that?
00:18:09
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:18:09
Brian Weiler
What were you afraid of? you know um Yeah, every job makes you a little bit nervous. My 23 year old daughter, I was talking to her last week and she's my youngest and she just graduated from college and this is not a good time to graduate college.
00:18:21
Brian Weiler
So she's trying to find her way in the world and you know everything that's out there.
00:18:22
The Jobs Podcast
no Yeah.
00:18:26
Brian Weiler
and And she said something to me that I really think it struck me. She said, dad, if you're putting in for a job and it doesn't terrify you at least a little bit, you're not challenging yourself enough.
00:18:35
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:18:36
Brian Weiler
thought, what a profound words from 23-year-old.
00:18:37
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:18:38
Brian Weiler
Mm-hmm.
00:18:40
The Jobs Podcast
the The option to try different jobs as you work your way up, you can look at it, I guess, as like, well, this person doesn't know what they want to do.
00:18:51
The Jobs Podcast
But there is a long-term benefit to that. And i i my kids hate that I relate every lesson to the firehouse, but it's very applicable in life. When you promote up, you are now managing the positions that you have done.
00:19:05
The Jobs Podcast
And so you know what each person needs to do, what they're going through when they do it, ways, ah common problems. You just, you're familiar with that job. And it only makes you a better leader if you have folks underneath you that you know exactly what they're supposed to do. And you can recognize quickly they're doing it right. They're doing it wrong.
00:19:25
The Jobs Podcast
Ways to improve it. It just lends itself to success when you're familiar with every aspect of your job and who you're leading.
00:19:32
Brian Weiler
I think you're, you're very right. And also I think it's very important for them to see that you've been in the trenches. You've, ah you've, you've, you've cleaned the bathrooms and you've fueled the planes and you've, you know, gone out and do different things like that.
00:19:39
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
00:19:42
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:19:46
Brian Weiler
You know, I think it also, it's good family life. I mean, my kids were born in what, four different cities in three different States. My wife and I, I think are on our seventh or eighth house right now. I've kind of lost track.
00:20:00
Brian Weiler
It's kind of, and you talk about leaving. I remember when I left state government. You know, and again, I was a division head within MoDOT and both my parents retired from state government. And and I remember my mom saying, Brian, what are you doing? You're crazy. You're division head. That's the job.
00:20:15
Brian Weiler
You know, write it out. And I'm like, mom, I just, I can't help it.
00:20:17
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Hmm. Hmm.
00:20:19
Brian Weiler
i I don't want to be bored and complacent in my job. And it's funny, since I've been down here for as long as I have, both of them have said, and unfortunately I lost my mom last year, but I both have said, no, that was one of the best decisions you ever made.
00:20:33
Brian Weiler
I mean, and so it's hard and I do think it's important. I've never left a job I didn't love, but sometimes challenging yourself and be, it's just something, i don't know whether it's it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I've always i've always liked that new aspect and and challenging myself and, and Trying to show my kids that and and there's nothing wrong because there are people that stay their whole life in one community and work for an organization. And that's admirable and that's good. and And you get that longevity. And, you know, especially I've talked to people. One thing I am jealous of is people that have all of their kids and all their grandkids like in their same city.
00:21:09
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:21:09
Brian Weiler
And I don't know that I'm ever going to have that because my kids have inherited my wandering ways. And, you know, right now I have a kid in South Korea, one that works for Boeing that's, you know, all over the place.
00:21:21
Brian Weiler
And and so, so who knows?
00:21:21
The Jobs Podcast
wow
00:21:23
Brian Weiler
I don't know. I don't know i whether I got somehow got that genetically from my parents, but I've always been kind of a wandering um open for anything. But, you know with the exception of Springfield, you know, again, we've been here 15 years and and and we love it here.
00:21:36
Brian Weiler
And I think we'll, will be here for ah foreseeable future.
00:21:41
The Jobs Podcast
The job that you do is very much a, you have a lot of irons in the fire at one time every given day. It's, I've got to have all these meetings and I have to talk to all these people and I have to address all of these issues.
00:21:56
The Jobs Podcast
Is that a fair statement?
00:21:58
Brian Weiler
ah Definitely. I mean, and it's so many different partners. You know, the airport is basically a small city and we're not the largest one out there, but we own five square miles of property, 3,300 acres.
00:22:05
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:22:09
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:22:11
Brian Weiler
And an airport can never have too much land because it helps you to protect from incompatible development for growth down the road.
00:22:13
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:22:19
Brian Weiler
But as far as, you know, I'm i'm lucky I've got about 125 team members within my city team out here. So that's, you know, that's airfield maintenance, it's custodian, it's building maintenance, it's, um you know, public relations and police fire.
00:22:34
Brian Weiler
We have our own police and fire department that we work with Springfield police and Springfield fire, but our firefighters are specialized aircraft emergencies and they also do the airline fueling. So if we have a building on fire, we call you guys, hey, come out and help us, you know, on that.
00:22:47
The Jobs Podcast
I know.
00:22:49
Brian Weiler
But but then beyond that, we've got some 40 tenant businesses that are located at the airport. So that's your four different airlines. That's your restaurants, your car rental agencies, the military, they're a tenant, the ah FAA is an air traffic controller. We've got a flight school, we've got corporate flights departments. So on any given day, we have about 2000 people that work at this airport.
00:23:14
Brian Weiler
And you know once a month, we have what we call it our airline managers meeting and we get all of our managers that have anything to do on on the in the terminal side. So it's you know it's your it's your station managers, it's your restaurant managers, and we all get together. and And, you know, I try to have what's called like a safe zone.
00:23:34
Brian Weiler
You know, if we've had a particularly bad weekend or some snow fight or some issue that came up, we try to approach it from a standpoint of, hey, this we're not pointing fingers at anybody, but let's a debrief on this issues. And what I always try to emphasize on them is it's not us versus them. If any part of the airport fails, we all fail.
00:23:54
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:23:54
Brian Weiler
So, you know, even though I can't control an airline delay, what can we do to help each other out to to give the best experience to our passengers? And and that that, I don't know that it's anything super special, but I do know airports where, you know, it's, well, that's their fault and that's, you know, whatever. And and I try not to have that kind of environment. And we've been pretty successful. In fact, last year, newsweek ah we were We were voted as one of the top 10 small airports of our class in the country and went through a process.
00:24:27
Brian Weiler
and I just take a lot of pride in that.
00:24:29
The Jobs Podcast
Sure. Mm-hmm.
00:24:29
Brian Weiler
and And I'm not saying that it's anything Brian's done, but I think I try to promote a team where we support each other, we work together, we talk. I'm i'm a fierce hater of silos ah within any organization and trying to break those down and work towards a common goal.
00:24:47
Brian Weiler
and we're growing like crazy. I mean, or it's one thing to have two, three, 4% growth, but we've had year over year double digit growth. I know when I started back in 11, we had about 650,000 passengers.
00:25:03
Brian Weiler
This year, there's a very good chance we're gonna break 1.5 million.
00:25:07
The Jobs Podcast
Wow. Yeah.
00:25:07
Brian Weiler
So almost tripling of that size, you know, and we've gone from, I think we had seven destinations. Today, we have 14 direct destinations. You know, and in airline service, we can we can talk about that. That's one of those things, you know, where the public is never satisfied.
00:25:24
Brian Weiler
and And I don't blame them.
00:25:24
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:25:25
Brian Weiler
I they're always going to want and I always joke to people when I'm out on the rubber chicken circuit doing the Satoma Club or the Optimist Club or Rotary. It's like, you know, we know what you want. You want to be able fly anywhere in the United States three times a day for 100 hours round trip.
00:25:37
Brian Weiler
And but yeah, I'm there. I get it
00:25:40
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. No. Mm-hmm.
00:25:40
Brian Weiler
But honestly, people are sometimes under the false assumption that airlines are like public utilities and they're there to serve the public. And and it's like you couldn't be further from the truth.
00:25:51
The Jobs Podcast
no
00:25:52
Brian Weiler
Airlines have been deregulated since 78 when Congress deregulated. Their private companies beholden to their shareholders. that are trying to make money wherever they can. And they have an incredibly mobile and expensive asset in an airliner.
00:26:01
The Jobs Podcast
and
00:26:06
Brian Weiler
In a a new airliner today, you're running anywhere between $150 and $200 million. dollars
00:26:12
The Jobs Podcast
Wow.
00:26:12
Brian Weiler
So they're going to transfer that asset around and make money wherever they can and the most money. And it's a brutal industry. I mean, i've I've learned a lot And I always tell people, if you understand airline economics, you probably need to check yourself into a mental hospital because they do so many things that don't make a lot of sense.
00:26:31
Brian Weiler
But it it is a brutal industry. I mean, we jokingly said 20 years ago when you wanted to expand airline service, you know, you get the chamber president and the mayor and the airport director and a couple of business lead and you go around and knock on doors of airlines.
00:26:45
Brian Weiler
you know, with a couple bottles of Jack Daniels you and hey, you know, we want to expand service. Today, that could not be further from the truth. One, there's a lot less airlines today than there used to be.
00:26:56
Brian Weiler
There used to be 20 plus airlines that had good size networks ah to try to attract people. and And you've known them all, you know, the Braniff's, the U.S. Air, you know, all these ones that have been merged down to really today. There are four airlines that manage or that have 85 percent of the seat capacity in the United States.
00:27:15
Brian Weiler
American Delta United and Allegiant. I'm sorry, American Delta United Southwest. We have three of those four today already because we have American Delta United and Allegiant, although Allegiant is not one of those.
00:27:26
Brian Weiler
So there's a lot less airliners out there today to make that case. And, you know, the airline industry has been but one of the funniest quotes I've heard was from ah Warren Buffett, I think. And it was talking about probably a few industries have lost more money than the airline industry.
00:27:43
Brian Weiler
And I think Warren Buffett was quoted as something as saying, well, if you know, if if if one of the if the capitalists had been at the the Kitty Hawk or the Wright Brothers, that would have shot down the plane because so many people have lost money on that and and just gone out of business and gone.
00:27:53
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:59
Brian Weiler
And right now we're probably going into another period where it was, you know, the pandemic was devastating to the airline industry.
00:28:06
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:28:07
Brian Weiler
But, you know, we I remember. and And I know Tim, I'm just swippin' all around here in all kinds of different areas, but I remember walkin' around in early April of 2020, right after they locked everything down.
00:28:21
Brian Weiler
And goin' through the terminal, walkin' around, and I saw one or two custodians, an airline person, and walked out in the parking lot, and there were four cars in the parking lot. And goin', oh my gosh, I don't know. you know i've I've got 100 employees, how am I gonna keep paychecks going?
00:28:36
Brian Weiler
it And it it was just a crazy time. there's just There's just so much to talk about. But yeah, I don't even know what your original question was, but hopefully we got some of it.
00:28:46
The Jobs Podcast
No, it's fine. No, it's good information because if somebody, and this isn't just someone who wants to work in the airline industry, there's leadership and management tidbits and kernels of knowledge that people can pull from conversations like this.
00:28:59
The Jobs Podcast
And one of the, when you were talking, I was thinking about, you have all of these different irons in the fire. You have all these different people to manage. There's a, and I'm sure you just like I, and everybody listening has worked for someone who was a micromanager or someone who you weren't allowed to make a mistake or,
00:29:15
The Jobs Podcast
They hired people to manage and then they didn't let them manage because the person over them was making all the decisions. How do you balance trusting the people that work for you to get the job done while also not letting it go so far that you have to step in because they've made a big mistake? Like where's that balance where I'm managing, but I'm not micromanaging. I'm trusting, but I'm monitoring.
00:29:40
Brian Weiler
I know i've gotten better, but i I am still learning myself. I do know like my first airport, I came in much more regulatory and more iron fisted and you know, you got to do this and you got to do that. And I think I've learned more in my career.
00:29:59
Brian Weiler
Hire good people, trust them. You're right. No one wants to be micromanaged.
00:30:03
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:30:03
Brian Weiler
And also, I think part of being a manager is recognizing is just because somebody wants to do something a different way than how you would approach it doesn't make it bad. In fact, a lot of times you'll find that they're right and you're wrong if you give them a chance.
00:30:17
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:30:17
Brian Weiler
Now, when I was at MoDOT, I learned a lot about performance management. And it it scared the heck out of me when I first learned about it. And then as I got more involved in it, I not only saw the results of it, but i I've actually used that when I came to this airport, um trying to put about a system in place to measure ah key indicators.
00:30:39
Brian Weiler
And really as key indicators, a way of measuring the results, not how you accomplish that. Because I'm a firm believer in the best the best ideas and the best people to deal with the issues are those that are closest to it.
00:30:54
Brian Weiler
And so having a system to track those things and the performance is much more important as a senior manager than trying to get in the middle of exactly how they do it, that because that really ought to be on them. And, and, you know,
00:31:08
Brian Weiler
um it's it's It's empowering to people. But again, I'm still, i think lifelong learning. and I think honestly, the older I get, I think I realize the less I know.
00:31:22
Brian Weiler
But it is, you would probably be very surprised to know how little I'm involved in the day-to-day operation this airport. I've got two outstanding deputy airport managers. I've got a supervisor team of about 15 people, of supervisors and managers, and we get together.
00:31:39
Brian Weiler
And again, you hire the best people you can, and then you make sure that they have the resources and the backing.
00:31:44
The Jobs Podcast
Thank you.
00:31:45
Brian Weiler
And also, I think part of it's the culture, a culture. to try things. And this is something i you know i've I've learned a lot working for boards ah myself and my you know I mentioned my the 11 member board I work for is you know if if you've got a board where, well, what did you do wrong? Why didn't this work out or done that? You're not gonna go very far. And I and i jokingly tell my um board that they're one of the reasons I'm here today is you know if you if you start 10 ideas or have 10 things that you're going and two of them are successful, that's good.
00:32:19
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:19
Brian Weiler
You know, that' that's exciting. and And we've been on kind of a roll where we will come up with the craziest things, but you know, half of them work. And that's what's kind of exciting.
00:32:28
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:32:29
Brian Weiler
I mean, I think i think back to the flight school that you know I came here in the first couple of years, I kept thinking, know we're a good size airport, why don't we have a flight school? And you know like a lot of people, well, you know we gotta got wait around for somebody to come who's gonna build a hangar, buy a bunch of airplanes, hire some people. you know And finally it kind of dawned on me, this is ridiculous. And you know once a year i sit down with my board in November,
00:32:52
Brian Weiler
with my management team and and we we we go away from the airport, we do some brainstorming for like a half day and we try to set some stretch goals. And one of the things we had was, hey, we want to get a flight school for our area.
00:33:06
Brian Weiler
And, you know, part of it was talking to, hey, we're waiting around for somebody to come and and do this, build this, hire this and wait, we're going to wait a long time. We're going need to incentive.
00:33:13
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:33:14
Brian Weiler
We're going need to incentivize this. And at that time we had some vacant buildings. And so we started putting some tools in place. Like I ah took my maintenance guys who were very good at what they did and we went in and remodeled an area um for you know probably less than $50,000.
00:33:33
Brian Weiler
And I was kept talking to Ozark Technical Community College at the time, hey, you know we'd love for you to start. And first it was, now there's no way crazy. The attorneys, no, we wanna do flight school. and And and you know we started working towards that and it took about,
00:33:47
Brian Weiler
eight or nine no's. And then I'd come back and i they'd address, you know, we tried to address this issue. and then I'd come back and say, well, I got this one, Dr. Higdon. Well, you know, the attorneys don't like that. And so we kept going back and forth, back and forth. And then finally in 2017, and I remember Dr. Higdon calling me and saying, okay, Brian, we're going to do this, you know, but we're, you know, and we're, we're we're in it for five years. You know, we're going to start with 20 slots, you three training aircraft. We've got a ah third party flight school provider that's going to do it for us.
00:34:17
Brian Weiler
But, you know, if it takes five years to get started, that's fine. We're in it. We're goingnna do it. And by golly, if we didn't, it did the program started with a waiting list.
00:34:26
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, wow. Wow.
00:34:27
Brian Weiler
So and today it's grown from three training aircraft and 20 students to over 10 training aircraft and tooting multi-engine. And they have almost 100 students.
00:34:37
The Jobs Podcast
wow
00:34:37
Brian Weiler
And it's just grown exponentially. And, and it's funny, we were two years into that program and I knew they were doing well. And I was like, guys, this is only going to get bigger. Why don't we, why don't we get some people in the room? Let's get a consultant. Let's do some visioning on what the future might look like. Cause the last thing I want to have as the airport manager is I don't have enough room for you to grow.
00:34:57
Brian Weiler
And we were working on our master plan at that time. And I wanted to make sure we designated areas for an educational, aviation educational institution. And so we did that. And we all threw it in a little bit of money. We brought a consultant on board. We did some visioning.
00:35:11
Brian Weiler
And it was kind of an afterthought. But we were talking, like, hey, you know, down the road, let's let's stick up a facility in there, just a box, we'll call it, for an aircraft maintenance training program, like a mechanic training program.
00:35:25
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:35:25
Brian Weiler
Because just as bad as we need pilots, we need mechanics. And we thought, you know, surely 15, 20 years down the road, something like that will happen if we start planning for it. But I keep also saying time and time again, if you have a vision and don't worry about how something's going to get done, it's amazing how it comes together.
00:35:42
Brian Weiler
So Fast forward to today, and I'm literally looking across the airfield and I see a brand new 30,000 square foot, fully paid for aircraft mechanic and training program that was just approved, the program by FAA ah couple months ago, and they will be starting fall of 2025 training airline mechanics.
00:36:07
The Jobs Podcast
Wow.
00:36:07
Brian Weiler
I mean, it's that that kind of stuff. I love the economic development part, and I love working with young people trying to get into aviation. um And we can talk more.
00:36:17
The Jobs Podcast
You mentioned, well, you mentioned the word vision.
00:36:18
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
00:36:20
The Jobs Podcast
I heard you say that two or three times while you were explaining that growth. And this is my opinion, and this is a rabbit hole. I'll just warn you now. Um,
00:36:31
The Jobs Podcast
I think that's one thing that our country used to do better than just about anybody was to dream really big and go, no, we've set our sights 10 feet in front of us when we need to set it 150 feet in front of us.
00:36:44
The Jobs Podcast
We need to think bigger long-term. It never hurts to ask. It never hurts to try. And let's come up with an idea that almost seems, it if it makes you a little uncomfortable, like your daughter said,
00:36:56
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
00:36:56
The Jobs Podcast
Maybe, maybe we should. i mean, what, why should we just go?
00:37:01
Brian Weiler
What does it hurt?
00:37:02
The Jobs Podcast
Well, yeah, what does it hurt? And I think sometimes we get in a rut and it's just like, well, this is the way we've always done it. We don't, that's madness. You don't, you don't talk like that. We don't dream big. We just come here and collect a paycheck and do what we want to do.
00:37:15
The Jobs Podcast
But I think it's kind of exciting. You've got people like, you know, Elon Musk is a very polarizing figure, but he's one of those guys that says, why aren't we planning to go to Mars? I mean, who says that?
00:37:27
The Jobs Podcast
But he's actually making steps that we may actually in our lifetime, maybe not have somebody or something on another planet.
00:37:35
Brian Weiler
I couldn't agree more. And, you know, I mentioned earlier about my board, having an environment with the board that when you do fail and you always fail and failures, actually, if you hear from people, it's it's it's a major step towards success.
00:37:50
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:50
Brian Weiler
But if when you when you do have that thing that doesn't quite work out, instead of well, what did you do wrong? And oh my gosh, and we got to get people in trouble and hold people accountable. and Instead, he's like, what have we learned from this? And what can we do better next time?
00:38:02
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:38:02
Brian Weiler
and ah And another, if you if you if you want me to, I'll tell you another quick story about a thing that really came together really well here at the airport recently. And that is a new American Airlines maintenance base.
00:38:15
Brian Weiler
And for years, Americans are our largest carrier. And for years, they were doing a small maintenance operation out of the leased hangar over in the general aviation area. And these are the old Embraer 140 and 145 aircraft and the old Saab 340s, which are, you know, anywhere from 19 to 40 seat aircraft.
00:38:37
Brian Weiler
And the industry is moving away from those for good reason. They're not economical. The pilot's salary you can't afford to pay. you know, um six figure salaries to pilots that are flying around 40 people economically, it just doesn't work.
00:38:51
Brian Weiler
And so my first several years, when they were running maintenance out of a leased hangar over there, the handwriting was on the wall, we were going to lose them as a maintenance base and the jobs that they had unless we did something differently. So we'd been talking with American about, hey, let's get you into a bigger facility.
00:39:09
Brian Weiler
One that, you know, as they bring in the larger airplanes will hold that, create more jobs for the area. and And long story short, and it took, I think it took almost seven years to finally get to the point when they, and it's funny, it never starts out also the way you, it never finishes the way you intended it to start.
00:39:28
Brian Weiler
I wanted to just lease them ah a partial property and let them come in and build a facility. They didn't want to do that. So it actually, the way it worked out is we end up designing it, building it, managing that, and actually the the city owns it and then we lease it to American. But today, are actually back we we did it during the pandemic, but in December of 2021,
00:39:52
Brian Weiler
we moved them into a 65,000 square foot three bay Embraer 175 maintenance base. And so these are the larger 76 seat, 80 seat um regional jets. And even they run some mainline routes for the airlines today.
00:40:10
Brian Weiler
ah And the thing about air service, which I talked about earlier, where no one's ever happy. They always want more.
00:40:17
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:40:17
Brian Weiler
Airlines and their communities that will literally write a check to an airline to provide service. Our board doesn't do that. Either either a route's got to stand on its own and be self-sufficient, or we don't really want you.
00:40:29
Brian Weiler
But there are ways you can incentivize airlines to do service. And the thought was with an airline maintenance base, and why we did this project and why I worked with the council and they were very open to the idea and my board is we want to create those jobs.
00:40:42
Brian Weiler
We want to have those opportunities for the kids. And actually the OTC aircraft mechanic training training program was a major part of of them agreeing to do this, which is now coming to fruition.
00:40:53
Brian Weiler
But also having an airline maintenance base here gives the airlines another reason to come to Springfield. because they got to maintain those planes here other than just selling tickets.
00:41:01
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
00:41:03
Brian Weiler
So we, by supporting them and working with them, that that project has worked out really since 2021, when they opened up that base and they're maintaining their their aircraft here. in fact, us in Miami are the only two Amber air, 175 maintenance bases in American airlines inventory.
00:41:24
Brian Weiler
So we're the main one. So they'll cycle planes through all the time. The number of seats in our market put in by American airlines has increased 30% since 2021.
00:41:34
The Jobs Podcast
wow
00:41:35
Brian Weiler
And so when we did the last master plan, we identified two additional, what are called maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities or MRO. And there's a lot of acronyms in aviation.
00:41:46
Brian Weiler
but we've got two additional MRO spaces. So the goal is when OTC or Ozark Tech, I'm sorry, comes online with their aircraft mechanic training program and we're goingnna start pumping out these mechanics.
00:41:59
Brian Weiler
ah they they're It's a two-year program. You're goingnna graduate two years. Workforce is huge. In fact, you know, and that's why, you know, I'm excited about our community. Ozark Tech starts the Center for Advanced Manufacturing. You know, we're focusing a lot more on industrial development, all the partnerships with with MSU, with Evangel, with Drury.
00:42:19
Brian Weiler
i mean, I think that's something Springfield does really good is that connection between what does industry need and what do our educational institutions need to do to train students to meet that need.
00:42:23
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:42:32
Brian Weiler
So what's really exciting to me is for the airport going forward, we've got spots for expansion for maintenance facilities, and we've got a pipeline of training right here at the airport.
00:42:43
Brian Weiler
So if we could get Delta or United or Allegiant or any other airline, to come here and put a maintenance facility here, they're also gonna provide airline service. So the community is gonna get a little more what they want. They're gonna want more airline service and the more airline service we can bring, it's also gonna bring more competition and competition what's bring down prices.
00:43:03
Brian Weiler
you know in my in my People are always like, oh, you know I go to Kansas City, it's 30, $40 cheaper a ticket or whatever amount of ticket. It's not because they say, well, Springville is doing something wrong. It's because competition.
00:43:14
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:43:14
Brian Weiler
At the larger carriers or at the larger facilities, you've got more competition. That's what drives prices down. Airlines are free to charge whatever they want to charge, and they will charge wherever whatever the market will bear. ah So in our area, because we're somewhat geographically isolated and they know that, although it's not as bad as it used to be, our fares have come down.
00:43:33
Brian Weiler
but But the more competition we can bring, would love to be a regional hub for airline maintenance. And that'll also give us better airline service to serve the region.
00:43:44
Brian Weiler
But this year alone, you know i mentioned about how fast we're growing. We've had back-to-back record years in 23 24. In 25, we're actually starting to see the industry level off and plateau. I've talked to several airport directors, and and I'm sure we'll get into industry other issues. But many airports are leveling off.
00:44:03
Brian Weiler
I literally just got our April numbers yesterday. And we are right now in April, we were up 10%. So we're running 9% ahead of last year's record year on top of that.
00:44:16
Brian Weiler
So, and I think a lot of it is our community.
00:44:16
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:44:19
Brian Weiler
We've got a diversified economy. um We're the the fastest growing metropolitan area in the state. And we're reflection of that. I mean, the airport, yeah you know, um people are like, hey, the airport's growing like crazy. You know, good job, Brian. I'm like, you know, I hear you.
00:44:33
Brian Weiler
But you got be really, really, really careful taking credit for something that you don't always have a hand in. The airport is a barometer. We're a reflection of local economy. When people have money in their pocket and they wanna fly, they'll go fly.
00:44:46
Brian Weiler
If they don't or there's uncertainty, they won't fly.
00:44:46
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:44:49
Brian Weiler
So there are plenty of really good airports out there that are not doing well and have plateaued and even lost service. And they've got really good airport directors. So I'm always really careful about claiming credit for something because that stuff will come back and haunt you.
00:45:03
The Jobs Podcast
You know, you had mentioned something a minute ago, and I just wanted to give OTC. I'm not familiar affiliated with them. I don't know any of their leadership. I just know the things that I've seen in my time in Springfield, OTC is growing, and they seem to be doing a lot of things right as far as their training offerings, the classes.
00:45:20
The Jobs Podcast
The buildings that they're building are not just a monument to a donor. Like, it's an actual effective facility where people can leave with skills to then go earn a good living. And ah I really like what I'm seeing out of OTC.
00:45:32
Brian Weiler
wave
00:45:32
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:45:33
Brian Weiler
They're so, and and you know, the pilot program I jokingly said was no, no, no, no no maybe yes.
00:45:33
The Jobs Podcast
but
00:45:39
Brian Weiler
And the aircraft mechanic program was maybe yes. I mean, they're they're their responsiveness with that.
00:45:44
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:45:47
Brian Weiler
And then one thing I haven't talked about, and this was something, the the local, you go even earlier than that, the Springfield Public School System, the largest school system in the state of Missouri, when they hired Dr. Granita Lathan, I think it's been four years ago, she came up from Houston, Texas.
00:46:01
Brian Weiler
And with her came some really cool ideas. She heard about the Ozark Tech Aviation Program and it was her idea, not mine. She's like, hey, can we get this earlier? So she brought forth the idea of starting an aviation high school and she pulled it off.
00:46:16
Brian Weiler
Now we cooperated with that, but she cooperated with Ozark Tech. So we now have the first aviation high school in the state of Missouri and they're in their third year where they take 10 students
00:46:25
The Jobs Podcast
Wow.
00:46:27
Brian Weiler
it's It's done through an application and a lottery system you have to apply for it, but it's a very competitive. They'll typically have 70, 80, 90 people apply for 10 slots.
00:46:37
The Jobs Podcast
wow
00:46:37
Brian Weiler
But these kids come out, spend half a day their junior and senior years, and they graduate with a pilot's license at no cost to them. And that's been really, really fun being involved in that program.
00:46:46
The Jobs Podcast
man
00:46:50
Brian Weiler
And I helped them to develop the curriculum. And one thing I was adamant about, and again, it's funny how many people, everybody starts in this industry, oh, wanna be a pilot. You know, I wanna be a pilot. all i And how many people, they don't realize how many other jobs are in it.
00:47:00
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:47:04
Brian Weiler
So one thing i claim a little bit of credit for, i worked with them on the on the junior curriculum for their first semester. They don't go flying. They spend the first semester going around all parts of the airport. So we have them spend days with um the control tower, with the military aviation, with our corporate flight departments, with my airfield maintenance people, with the National Weather Service, with the airline people doing ground handling.
00:47:32
Brian Weiler
Probably the most boring part of that first curriculum is I get them for a day on airport governance. You know, I joke because it's not really that sexy.
00:47:40
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah, I know.
00:47:40
Brian Weiler
but But the idea is to expose them. Hey, kids, it's not just being a pilot. like And you can still be a pilot.
00:47:46
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:47:47
Brian Weiler
And I'm a pilot. And I love being a pilot.
00:47:49
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:47:49
Brian Weiler
But, you know, there are so many opportunities. Our are air traffic controllers, and you've you've heard it and in the in the media now, they're covering it like crazy. um We're a training tower in our airspace here. People know it's nice. That little tower there controls space like 10 miles around.
00:48:03
Brian Weiler
No, that control tower runs Springfield approach. They also run Mizzou approach, which has airspace all the way up to Hannibal. all from Springfield.
00:48:15
Brian Weiler
And so, and they've got probably 50, 60 controllers and maintenance people that are over there. And it usually takes you to be an air traffic controller. You go through an academy or you're a prior military, or there's other various college programs you can go to.
00:48:29
Brian Weiler
But when you go to a, when you go to an airport like here, it'll probably take you a year to get checked out in the various positions that are both in the tower cab, but then below the tower cab, they have the radar room. And that's what I did in the military was the radar stuff. I did get ground control on the tower.
00:48:45
Brian Weiler
But anyway, you're towards the end of what's called full performance level. When you're a full performance level controller, you can run all those positions. I guarantee there's not one control over there makes less than six figures.
00:48:56
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:48:56
Brian Weiler
So, mean, there's some good jobs that are out there. Our corporate flight departments, when I came here years ago, most of the corporate pilots were laid off airline pilots. Well, aviation and really most industries are very cyclical.
00:49:06
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:49:09
Brian Weiler
And, you know, we're going through periods where we we have a huge demand for pilots. A lot of schools are pumping out pilots now. And I wouldn't be surprised if if that's gonna back off a little bit in the coming years is, you know, the ups and downs and ebbs and flows. But one thing is for sure, really, no matter where you are in aviation,
00:49:26
Brian Weiler
we need more young people going into it. and And to this day, that's probably one of the things I really enjoy the most. I love working on big economic development projects. I just enjoy that. And then I love working with young people interested in aviation.
00:49:40
Brian Weiler
And I've actually got a ah girl who actually just got her master's degree. She called me up six, seven, eight years ago. She was a high school student up around Stockton Lake.
00:49:53
Brian Weiler
And here it was her mom called me said, hey, can can my daughter Angela come down and and be a job shadow for you one day? And she came down and then she came back the next year and did a job shadow. And we were talking more. Anyway, she came and worked for Allegiant. She was slinging bags and doing different things. She went to OTC, got her undergraduate degree, went you know was working in various aviation roles, kind of working her way up.
00:50:17
Brian Weiler
And then we hired her in our operations center, which allowed her to tap into the city's tuition reimbursement program. So she ended up getting her bachelor's in aviation management. And then now she's picked up her mat. And every time she's gotten a degree that we've helped pay for, i make her go in front of my board when we give her her diploma.
00:50:36
Brian Weiler
And I jokingly tell the board, but I'm dead serious about this. She's going to be the director of this airport someday. And, you know, it's just, and she's like, oh no, you know, and i yeah, you know, aim high. The the most limiting person on ah these people are yourself.
00:50:51
Brian Weiler
And I just, i'd love I love, get such a charge out of working and i always get to meet with the high school students and usually Mozart tech has me over talking to their early class. I just love working with young people wanting to get in aviation.
00:51:04
The Jobs Podcast
A minute ago, you were talking about how when you have the students come, they everybody wants to be a pilot and they're looking for the the edgy, cool, sexy job of, you know, well, I'm a pilot, you know, and they as they slowly remove their sunglasses.
00:51:16
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
00:51:16
The Jobs Podcast
and But your idea there about making them come to and see all of the different departments that allow the airport to function You mentioned earlier in our conversation that you hate businesses or entities that are siloed.
00:51:32
The Jobs Podcast
Well, that can apply to your mind as well. If you're just like, well, I'm a pilot and you don't have any idea what goes into working on your plane or fueling your plane or any other maintenance or certifications or, you know, how the runway is maintained.
00:51:36
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
00:51:45
The Jobs Podcast
It's so vital to know all those different areas because it's going to make you a better pilot.
00:51:51
Brian Weiler
Definitely. I love it.
00:51:52
The Jobs Podcast
the You mentioned something earlier about failing, and I always ask this question because I'm curious what people – What would they say or what would they advise someone that worked for them that made a mistake or how you handle with failure yourself? Now, I don't think my dad came up with this little acronym, but he told me when I was younger, he said, fail is just an acronym for first attempt in learning.
00:52:17
Brian Weiler
i love it
00:52:17
The Jobs Podcast
And I've always thought that was just a phenomenal way to frame a failure. Yeah, there's going to be consequences sometimes. And depending on the mistake, it could be, you know, pretty major.
00:52:29
The Jobs Podcast
But it's also, you're going to make mistakes. And I think some people expect perfection. And it's just, there's few certain things in life except death and taxes.
00:52:40
The Jobs Podcast
You will not be perfect. You will make a mistake. How you respond to it.
00:52:43
Brian Weiler
I'd say if you're not making mistakes, you're not, you're not pushing yourself.
00:52:45
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:52:48
The Jobs Podcast
Right. Right.
00:52:50
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
00:52:51
The Jobs Podcast
But what are you what's your advice for dealing with failure? If somebody that works for you makes a mistake, how do you proceed forward? How do you address it? And then what's your approach after the fact?
00:53:03
Brian Weiler
Oh, I mean, pretty much just like you said that it's it's it's part of that. You're not pushing yourself if you're not, you know, ah hitting it from all sides. You know, i mean, I always jokingly and we've had I've had everything under sun at the airport, you know, somebody taking a backhoe underneath the jet bridge and like clipping some wires, somebody going off and do a ditch or, you know, and yeah it's just one of those where, and I'm not saying, I'm not saying you you always have a focus on safety and you always have a focus on training and doing different things.
00:53:24
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:53:34
Brian Weiler
But, um, You know, honestly, when there's like a ah mistake or something, that some good hearted ribbing is probably part of the deal. But, you know, just moving on now, you know, I always jokingly say you got one one boo boo pass. And it's like my kids, you know, having four kids, I always tell people, yeah, I've had four kids through driving driving in every kid, whether you're like or not, it's going have a boo boo. You can overreact. They're going to You know, yeah, that that concrete post jumped out in front of me I'm like, what are you talking about? It's stuck. It's right there.
00:54:02
Brian Weiler
You know, but, you know, you you got to move on because if you just keep remembering that you you break down their self-esteem, their confidence, which you can't have that.
00:54:02
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:54:09
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:54:10
Brian Weiler
So you quickly identify it, quickly talk about what we could have done better, you know, razz them a little bit, but then move on. and And don't keep bringing up because that's just not not a good thing.
00:54:18
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:54:23
Brian Weiler
And celebrate your failures. You know, my my deputy, who i get he's like me, but 20 years younger. you know, he's in ah he's in the he runs the operation. of the You know, I borrowed his truck and a couple of weeks ago. He was, I forget, he was on vacation or something. and I was out checking projects on the airfield. And I don't mind saying this. i I pulled up next. we were rebuilding our cargo rap and apron. And I pulled up in front of some ramps, but the ramps were very low. And I went out. I was talking to the construction foreman and going around all the different areas and got sucked into that and didn't come back for an hour later.
00:54:55
Brian Weiler
So I get, I jump in the truck and put it in driving and go forward. And, you know, sure enough, those, those ramps that I parked in front of that I couldn't see, i couldn't see. And I moved forward and I had a boo-boo, you know, and, and, you know,
00:55:08
Brian Weiler
And I thought, oh, great. You know, when I called up, fessed up about it and he knew it and he gave me some Razz. And I said, you know what? I deserve it. i
00:55:17
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:55:17
Brian Weiler
i don't I don't know.
00:55:17
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:55:18
Brian Weiler
I just think um mistakes are a part of life. um You always try to limit as much as you can. But I think overreacting to an honest mistake is a key management failure, in my opinion.
00:55:32
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:55:33
Brian Weiler
It just it doesn't it doesn't create an environment ah that you want. And I talked earlier about performance management and the idea of in where how we do it at the airport when we did this program a number of years ago is we we got together about once every six months and reported we reported on the findings of the particular errors. And every every measure was tied to an individual. So that individual i had to stand up in front of the group of his peers, her peers, and talk about what was going on with that measure.
00:56:05
Brian Weiler
And you weren't allowed to talk about what you're going to do because results only matter on what you've done. But I was surprised at... the level of accountability the coworkers held that person to, they were much tougher than I was.
00:56:20
Brian Weiler
um And that you have that, you so you wanna have that that culture where we challenge each other, we but we're working together and you're helping each other out. but No, I don't know. Again, I'm no expert in this area. I've picked up a few things. I've worked for a lot of really good bosses in my career and some mentors that really helped shape me.
00:56:41
Brian Weiler
And then I've worked for some ones that are not so good. And and even those, I probably learned some some things from, not all good, but maybe how not to do things.
00:56:48
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:56:49
Brian Weiler
and And I think all that's part of making you a better ah better manager.
00:56:50
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:56:54
Brian Weiler
But you know at at the end, I think most people would agree is hire good people. And while I will say hiring is a big deal, I would 10 times rather have somebody who's got a good attitude, who's coachable, learnable, and can work in a team environment than some prima data that thinks they're God's gift to technology and they know everything under the sun.
00:57:13
Brian Weiler
And i I tell my supervisors at all the time, run from that person. don't I don't want them on our team.
00:57:17
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:57:20
Brian Weiler
And they've grown and learned from that. It's, you know, working together in a team is is the soft skill, soft skill thing that I think it's still there. You know, I see the young people and I'm, you know, every generation thinks the generation that follows it's going to, you know, everything's going down.
00:57:37
Brian Weiler
You know, every once a while joke, its it's it's all that damn rock and roll music. You know, it's just, you know, but when I work with young people, i get excited.
00:57:43
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:45
Brian Weiler
Because I know they've got great hearts.
00:57:46
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:57:48
Brian Weiler
They, you know, they they want to do good, you know, in there. They just need you need to give them an opportunity and you got to give them room to fail.
00:57:55
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:57:55
Brian Weiler
And because you're right, you can't if you solve everything for them or tell them what to do, they're never going to learn.
00:58:00
The Jobs Podcast
Well, they also won't make their own decisions. if you If you do everything for them, then what you get is you're going to wonder, why isn't anybody doing anything? nobody
00:58:08
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
00:58:08
The Jobs Podcast
Nobody takes any initiative. Well, I'm either going to get in trouble for doing something that you didn't authorize or you know I'll do it wrong and then I'll get in trouble or I'll make a mistake and I'll get in trouble.
00:58:19
The Jobs Podcast
But every every outlet or every ending story for me is negative. And so I'm just going to do as little as possible to not get fired.
00:58:26
Brian Weiler
Do nothing. Yeah, that's not a good thing.
00:58:30
The Jobs Podcast
No, the the prima donna thing, you're absolutely right. When you have someone that comes in and they're teachable and they're you they have a good attitude and they're upbeat, they you know they show up, they have the soft skills to show up on time or five minutes early because if you're on time, you're late as far as I'm concerned.
00:58:46
The Jobs Podcast
Then those folks, if they make a mistake, it's a genuine mistake and they're going to learn from it and most likely never repeat it again. The prima donnas will be the ones that will blame and deflect and not take responsibility or learn from it.
00:58:58
Brian Weiler
The other big thing to get in this industry, if I could, his relationships are everything and they matter.
00:59:04
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. really?
00:59:04
Brian Weiler
And, you know, if somebody is interested in the career field in this, call up your local airport manager. I have people call me all the time and I love meeting and and I got to be careful.
00:59:12
The Jobs Podcast
ah really
00:59:15
Brian Weiler
I can't take a whole day once a week or whatever.
00:59:17
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
00:59:18
Brian Weiler
But no, I regularly affect Warrensburg. They have an aviation program up there. University Central Missouri's aviation program. And if somebody's interested in aviation, I usually have them down as a group and then I'll go up and guest lecture.
00:59:30
Brian Weiler
But, you know, the idea, know, I remember when I was fresh out of the Marine Corps and had my undergraduate, i I called up and went over and visited the Jeff City. you you And I think this is true of most industries.
00:59:42
Brian Weiler
If you get a call from a young person and they want to know what you do or how to do it, I would have very little a feeling about anybody that would turn so turn some of that down.
00:59:53
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
00:59:53
Brian Weiler
People are always willing to help. They're always willing to give advice, but you got to make the first move, you know, and if you're not willing to stick yourself out there a little bit, make those contacts, you know, because, you know, and I, and you know, today I know you got Indeed, you got these job listings things like that, but very few people in the industry that if you won't reach out to them, won't, won't respond in a positive fashion if they can.
00:59:55
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
01:00:17
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. No, you're right. it's It's just with anything in life. You can't just sit there waiting for a knock on the door. You've got to go and take that first step and show the initiative.
01:00:23
Brian Weiler
Yes.
01:00:26
The Jobs Podcast
It's amazing nowadays. Unfortunately, there's a lot of folks that won't take that first step. And so if you're willing to do that, you're already leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.
01:00:35
Brian Weiler
yes
01:00:36
The Jobs Podcast
the The soft skills, you you kind of opened the door a minute ago with folks that reach out to you and and you you've mentioned folks you thought would be good in your line of work We've talked about a number of different management styles and approaches to failure and whatnot, but are there any soft skills that if you had a group of you know five or 10 people in front of you, what are the what are those little intangibles that pop out at you that would allow someone, I think that guy's got what what it takes?
01:01:06
Brian Weiler
I mean, I think a lot of it's common sense, but I've definitely picked up some nuggets and hiring people and through the years and so forth. um Someone that has a genuine interest in the job, you can, if you're interested in something, and you go into an interview, research, you know, ask some questions. I think one of the, you know, horrible when you finish an interview, you say, you have any do you have any questions? And they say, no.
01:01:29
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
01:01:29
Brian Weiler
Or the question relates to, well, how many vacation days do I get per year? And what's my salary?
01:01:33
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:01:34
Brian Weiler
And annual negotiat and it's like, dude, you never talk that stuff on the first interview.
01:01:38
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:01:41
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
01:01:41
Brian Weiler
let Let them want you before you do any of that. But just a teachable excitement about the job, interest, getting, you know I think when I've gone in interviews, if you can get the panel to talk more, ask them questions. Hey, I noticed on this last quarterly statement, you were up 3% in this area. Hey, can you get a little more? And that sounds pretty cool.
01:02:01
Brian Weiler
or something along those lines, getting people, na it can't it shouldn't all be just about you. And seeing people that are not so self-centered, people that are wanting to be supportive of the team.
01:02:14
Brian Weiler
um Those are things that that that I look for. um and yeah, and just have a a decent personality.
01:02:23
The Jobs Podcast
Are you looking for folks that you're looking to invest in an employee? Are you looking for employees that are wanting to invest in your company or your operation?
01:02:33
Brian Weiler
I mean, people that come in like with good ideas, you are you know, it's funny, I always tell my managers there are two basic kind of, you know, there's the there's the person that you almost have to hold back.
01:02:36
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:02:47
Brian Weiler
I mean, they are so excited. They're wanting to get in they do three, four things. They got these great ideas and and probably half of them are like, oh, you know, I don't know.
01:02:51
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:55
Brian Weiler
Would you rather have that or would you rather have kind of the old dog person? He's sitting over there in the corner and you got to go over there and you kind of got to kick him and like, hey, man, let's move along here a little bit.
01:03:03
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:03:04
Brian Weiler
And they'll get up and they'll do what needs to be done. And then they'll go back down to their position. I would 10 times rather have that person that I got hold back who every once while is going to make a mistake or maybe need some corrective discussion than the person I got a kick a little bit.
01:03:17
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:03:17
Brian Weiler
I mean, it's it's just the initiative part that is is is not good.
01:03:25
The Jobs Podcast
What do you like most about your job? If you could just pick one thing.
01:03:29
Brian Weiler
Oh, gosh. I mean, and it's probably the reason I like the sweet spot of this size of airport. When you go to the next level, you know, I'll be straight with you I've had the opportunity.
01:03:44
Brian Weiler
it's It's almost part of such a large cosme that what I like about this is I can go around to any part of this airport. And I can see my hand in this and that and where I contributed. And that that is appealing to me.
01:04:02
Brian Weiler
I really like getting things done. i mean, I have no interest in occupying a chair. it's If we're not getting things done and we're not moving forward, it's what's the fun in it?
01:04:16
Brian Weiler
you know
01:04:16
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. is there Is there an aspect of your job that you dislike? And every job has good days and bad days.
01:04:25
Brian Weiler
no Oh, yeah.
01:04:25
The Jobs Podcast
I love my job, but there are a few things that if I didn't have to do every day, it would be nice to dismiss.
01:04:28
Brian Weiler
Oh, yeah, no no doubt about it. And probably I would say one of the more challenging, I don't necessarily hate it. It's not a bad thing, but it is it is difficult being held accountable to the public for an industry that you would be surprised how little say so I have.
01:04:47
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm. Hmm.
01:04:48
Brian Weiler
And, you know, we're we're a good size regional airport. We're probably in my lifetime, never going to be an international airport, you know, or a major hub.
01:05:00
Brian Weiler
So as a result, um lot of you We don't have a lot of throughput traffic. You you don't go from a to New York with a stop in Springfield. um It doesn't happen. I mean, so we're going, we're what's called an origin and destination airport.
01:05:14
Brian Weiler
So you're either coming to the Springfield for a specific region or you're leaving Springfield for a specific region. So a lot of our airlines, and good they're good people, but they a lot of times they're like any industry. They're trying to keep their costs as low as possible. so you know if and But we've got you know United and American are busiest airlines right now, but like United is handled by ah private third-party company called Unify.
01:05:40
Brian Weiler
And actually Unify is doing really good today. um But an American is handled by American people and you not um Allegiant as a another third party. Well, ah a lot of times those are low cost contracts.
01:05:53
Brian Weiler
So like, let's say United and Delta, and they got flights hitting every 15 minutes, you know, at 12, 1215, 1230, 1245, one o'clock.
01:06:04
Brian Weiler
And you've got crews that if everything falls in place, they're good. But welcome to reality. It doesn't happen. So one flight is going to be five minutes early. Another one's going to be 10 minutes late.
01:06:15
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:06:15
Brian Weiler
And so and people just assume, oh, well, you know, the airport handles all that. You need to hire more people. And it's like, you know, that crew. And so people will will come out here on an airplane and they'll sit there and they'll wait sometimes for 10 minutes because, well, that the crew that's scheduled to park you, they're now doing baggage on a plane over there and doing that.
01:06:33
Brian Weiler
So you get a lot of people that, you know, expect perfection in an imperfect industry. And you got people that are working very hard. So a lot of time, and and you don't want to, you know, you want to listen to them. I mean, every piece of input I get, and I get every every input under the sun from cold sandwich to late bag to dirty restroom to, you know, you you name it. I mean, I get, but I consider those as opportunities to get better.
01:07:01
Brian Weiler
So people will call with any complaint under the sun. and I'll, you know, I always start out every, every input session with, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to help us get better. And I do truly mean that, but we do have bad days and there'll be a weather day or word delays or other system. And, and you're, you're dealing with people that are not, you know, they're trying to get to a funeral of a parent. They're trying to get to a wedding. They're trying to go on a honeymoon where Unfortunately, they're they're booking a cruise where they're flying into Fort Lauderdale at 10 o'clock and the cruise leaves at one o'clock.
01:07:35
Brian Weiler
Well, first of all, you never, and I mean, you never fly in on the day of your cruise.
01:07:39
The Jobs Podcast
yeah No.
01:07:41
Brian Weiler
Come in the day before.
01:07:41
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:07:43
Brian Weiler
you know Part of it is, or they got 45 minutes on ah on a layover in charlotte which is heavily under construction right now and it's like oh for god just use just use some common sense you you got to be a little different but you know you're dealing with people who are emotionally not at the best so you you get a little bit of a thick skin where you get used to being and chewed out and so i i don't some of those days aren't the best you know i will admit
01:07:53
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
01:08:08
The Jobs Podcast
there I'm sure there's times where the complaints are legitimate, but I can also see the majority of the time it's probably people that are just being difficult and all that's putting it politically correctly.
01:08:11
Brian Weiler
oh yeah
01:08:17
Brian Weiler
and If you let them vent and talk, honestly, that usually they're happy.
01:08:19
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah, yeah. Right.
01:08:22
Brian Weiler
But I do have a legitimate job in that if there are distinct patterns with a particular issue, I have a duty and I will step in. And we will. We've done that. So I definitely look for the patterns.
01:08:35
Brian Weiler
And the airport fails plenty of times too. you know So even with my tenants, it's not always the airline fault.
01:08:37
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
01:08:40
Brian Weiler
Sometimes it's us, you know it's like, okay, what have we learned? What can we do better? you know and And that kind of atmosphere is what I seek to try to have here in culture that I seek to have here at SGF.
01:08:53
The Jobs Podcast
One of the things that popped into my head as I was listening to you talk about the, you know, a plane is early, a plane is late. This crew that normally does this got pulled over here to do this because of ah a change in the the schedule.
01:09:06
The Jobs Podcast
So then they can't do that. And that the end customer doesn't understand. All they know is something's gone wrong.
01:09:10
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
01:09:12
The Jobs Podcast
This may be something that you don't have any control over for the standpoint of the major airlines that are flying in. But what can be done, if anything, to maybe give the customer some insight into this is how, this is what we're dealing with.
01:09:30
The Jobs Podcast
And it it may not make them understand it more, but is that is that not worth the time?
01:09:31
Brian Weiler
yeah
01:09:34
Brian Weiler
No, it it is it is a balance because you don't want to appear to be, well, it's never my fault.
01:09:41
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
01:09:41
Brian Weiler
Because sometimes sometimes it is my fault.
01:09:42
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
01:09:44
Brian Weiler
um But I do think we we have put out several long posts and explanations on our website ah about what is the responsibility. But at the end result is you're dealing with somebody that's either missing a flight, they're delayed, they want to get to their loved ones, and they don't really care.
01:10:02
Brian Weiler
They just want it done.
01:10:02
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Right. right
01:10:03
Brian Weiler
And so, you know, and i've I've had a few pilots and, you know, God loves the ego of of an airline captain, you know, and and a couple of times, you know, few, I've only really got into them once.
01:10:17
Brian Weiler
i was to say maybe four or five years ago, ah and I won't even name the airline, but it was a particularly bad weather day. And all my crews are out doing runways and tax ways with the snow plows and doing all that.
01:10:29
Brian Weiler
And this person was having delayed getting de-iced. And, ah you know, the plane pushes back, it gets the ice and he's coming in and um the time expired. he had to come back in, offload the plane. And of course, the captain loves to grab a mic and just throw everybody under the bus.
01:10:45
Brian Weiler
And, you know, and he's sitting there just just breaking the airport through the coals on not having enough deicing crew. and And I'm never going to challenge them. in a public setting like that, because that do does no good.
01:10:57
Brian Weiler
But then, you know, I'm like, when it gets all done and I'm like, pulled him aside say, hey, Captain, can I talk to you for a minute?
01:10:57
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
01:11:01
Brian Weiler
It's like, okay, you you do realize the airport's focused on the runways and tax aways and keeping those, and you had ah breaking action of good Should you be allowed to take off and the taxiway is cleared going to that?
01:11:14
Brian Weiler
And the reason that your plane is not being de-iced is because your airline that handles the de-icing for your aircraft, they have two of one broke down because they didn't get it fixed. So you know my point is be careful who you point your finger at because it may be yourself in the mirror.
01:11:29
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:11:29
Brian Weiler
And by you doing this, what kind of culture are you doing? And oh my gosh, oh my gosh. you know And again, it's just more of, um again, i'm I'm never gonna say we're not perfect because we fail all the time, but it's it's just that trying to to balance because the there are in the airline industry, I mean, when during the pandemic,
01:11:53
Brian Weiler
the airlines were terrified and they were giving retirement incentives to get rid of people. They were laying people off and the travel demand that came out of the pandemic was so much higher than anybody expected.
01:12:07
Brian Weiler
The demand was huge and all of a sudden, And the the pilots that were now retired, and they're like, well, you know, I don't want to come back. You know, I like it where I'm at. And there wasn't enough pilots being trained. And so there was these distinct shortages. And the pilot salaries just shot up huge.
01:12:24
Brian Weiler
So we as an industry... after the pandemic, we're not prepared for the level of demand that were imposed upon that. And so things are now calming down now, more plateauing, um and we're getting back to more, but we're still experiencing strong growth here. But you know that's why I love this industry. It's it's ever dynamically changing. I'm still learning a lot.
01:12:50
Brian Weiler
And I just, I love that aspect of it.
01:12:54
The Jobs Podcast
The topic of pay is something that most folks are always interested in. And I know that we talked earlier about that's not, you know, your first question at your first interview is, well, how much does it pay kind of stuff.
01:13:05
The Jobs Podcast
But on the jobs podcast, we do like to at least touch maybe the edge of pay scale.
01:13:11
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
01:13:12
The Jobs Podcast
Now, I'm not asking you what you make. I never do that.
01:13:14
Brian Weiler
Sure.
01:13:14
The Jobs Podcast
But ah industry standards. you've had a lot of different jobs and now you are a director. What kind of salary ranges or does it vary a lot, like a lot of things do with someone that's at l LAX or LaGuardia is going to have a higher cost of living. So their salary will reflect that.
01:13:34
Brian Weiler
Sure.
01:13:35
The Jobs Podcast
um But you know, we're in the, we're in the Midwest.
01:13:35
Brian Weiler
No, that's...
01:13:37
The Jobs Podcast
So what are we looking at?
01:13:37
Brian Weiler
Yeah, no, that's a good question. Really, it probably has more to do with the size of airports. So we're what's categorized as a small hub airport.
01:13:42
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
01:13:46
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
01:13:46
Brian Weiler
And then there are medium hubs and large hubs. So um Springfield, Northwest Arkansas, ah Eugene, Oregon, Chattanooga, Tennessee, those are all small hubs. Medium hubs are like Kansas City, St. Louis, Little Rock.
01:14:01
Brian Weiler
Those are medium hubs. Large hubs, those are your Chicago's, your Atlanta's, your Dallas's. And then there are non-hub airports, which are still important. Those are like Joplin, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, you know, those just to kind of give you an idea of that.
01:14:16
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:14:16
Brian Weiler
So, and and it varies a lot. I will say the the number of experienced airport managers in my field now is scary.
01:14:29
Brian Weiler
it We have a lot of people that my age and older that are retiring off. And we do not have a really good large crop of competition.
01:14:39
Brian Weiler
So there is, there is, i mean, my, my two direct, my two deputies get recruited constantly. i have get recruited from time to time. I lost my, one of my assistant directors a few years ago. and you know, it's funny, she had no airport experience. I hired her out here.
01:14:56
Brian Weiler
great financial experience. And I worked with her for six, seven years and she got all her accreditations and and did that. And she was a really qualified chief financial officer for an airport. And I remember joking to one day going, you have any idea how marketable you are right now?
01:15:10
Brian Weiler
Sure enough, within, within, within like two months, she got stolen away by Nashville to be their, um, number two or three in their finance areas. So it, it is, it is, um,
01:15:23
Brian Weiler
scary i mean, I was actually talking one of my younger daughter about, man, you should go into airport management. And this is a field where it's wide open. It's not a bunch of old white guys. I mean, actually, the director of Kansas City, I've known her for years.
01:15:34
Brian Weiler
Younger person. She's a female. The long term director at Lambert, Rhonda, her and I grew up in the industry together. She came from an airline background. But I would say, you know, um Small hub airports, you know, us, Des Moines, you know, when you get to the director level, you know, it's it's good good pay.
01:15:53
Brian Weiler
I mean, you're probably somewhere between 150 and 300 a year.
01:15:57
The Jobs Podcast
and Okay. Okay.
01:15:58
Brian Weiler
ah You go to medium hub and larger, especially at airport authorities, which are governing bodies within themselves. and large hubs, you know, though that next class, you're, you're three to 600.
01:16:11
Brian Weiler
But now somebody that's like the airport manager of like Joplin or Columbia or something, there's still good pay to be made in that. I mean, anywhere from 75 to 150.
01:16:23
The Jobs Podcast
and okay
01:16:24
Brian Weiler
You know, a lot of times you're part of a city. So sometimes you're, held back on that because, you know, they're department head within a city. There are many ways that airports are governed. You know, again, some are governing bodies within themselves. They're known as what's called an airport authority.
01:16:38
Brian Weiler
So wide variety of that. But I will say that the pays just in the last several years have gone up dramatically just because there is not enough people going into this area. So if you if you have a kid that's interested in going in aviation management and they've got the right attitude, you can't be quiet and timid in this role.
01:16:59
Brian Weiler
You gotta be somebody that rolls up their sleeve, gets in there. But if if you have that kind of mentality, good good personality, you can be in incredibly compensated and and have a very good career.
01:17:12
Brian Weiler
um
01:17:13
The Jobs Podcast
Are most of the folks that are in your line of work more on the extroverted side or is there a a typical personality style you see?
01:17:21
Brian Weiler
No, it's it's almost we're we're all type A's, extroverts.
01:17:23
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Oh, yeah.
01:17:25
Brian Weiler
I mean, that's because you you to be this to be at this level, you have to be.
01:17:31
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:17:31
Brian Weiler
you're not going to be timid and be be a small or medium hub airport director. I mean, you can't, because first of all, the you'll never survive in that role.
01:17:34
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
01:17:38
Brian Weiler
There's too many negotiations. There's too much working. yeah you You've got to be able to roll your sleeves up and get in there or you don't have a prayer. I mean, it's so it's not for everybody. Now, you can also have a very successful career, though. And I always tell people there are two different ways to get in airport management. but You can go ahead and get your degree. I mean, it used to be, well, I was prior military or I was an airline pilot, also my mechanical.
01:18:03
Brian Weiler
most Most professional airport managers today went to school in one of the programs out there to be an airport manager. So when you graduate and you got your bachelor's degree and you're you know you know enough to be dangerous, really two schools of thought. You're either going to go to a large airport and you're going to start and as like an operations officer or a maintenance officer, or you're going to you're going to go in there and and learn that aspect and hopefully grow and work your way up. And many airport directors have done that.
01:18:31
Brian Weiler
You got to be careful, though, in that area and not to stay your whole career in operations. You need to do a little over in air service development, over in maintenance. You got to have that wide perspective. Or the other approach is you go to a small airport and you're the top dog.
01:18:45
Brian Weiler
I mean, I've never been in an airport that I've not been the director of aviation, including my first one up in St. Joe. And so I was literally scraping dead birds off the runway in the morning.
01:18:54
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:18:55
Brian Weiler
And I was going to city council meeting that night trying to get a hundred thousand dollar match for a runway rehabilitation grant.
01:18:56
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:19:02
Brian Weiler
And so it's kind of sink or swim. You get in there and you learn everything because you have no choice.
01:19:04
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
01:19:07
Brian Weiler
And if the if the custodian's sick, you're you're scrubbing the bathrooms in the in the FBO. because you got to. Now, I prefer that way, honestly, because it's really put me in situations where i had to learn.
01:19:14
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
01:19:20
Brian Weiler
And, you know, sink or swim. And I loved it. But I also I see people are different in a way. But you can also have a very successful career and never be the top position.
01:19:30
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:19:31
Brian Weiler
There are plenty of really good people and who do very well in those roles because you go up to like KCI or Lambert. They probably have four to five hundred employees who work for their cities at the airport.
01:19:44
Brian Weiler
And then, you know, like my airport, i got 125 people. But like within those that have gone and been a professional airport management training, like my my deputy, Dave Schaumburg, good guy.
01:19:55
Brian Weiler
you should have him on there. one You know, he he actually started his op in ops in Kansas City, became assistant operation manager. He knew he needed to move around. And sometimes that means leaving a good job to get that exposure.
01:20:07
Brian Weiler
So he went down and ran an airport in Denton, Texas, a good corporate general aviation airport. He went to College of the Ozarks, got an aviation degree there. Unfortunately, they don't have that program. So when he put in for my job, or I'm sorry, when he put in for the deputy and I hired him eight years ago, I saw he had big airport experience. I saw he'd run in a corporate, an airport. There was a general aviation airport. I'm like, good. He's got that perspective. I look for, and he also worked line service and he was a pilot and also he was a mechanic.
01:20:36
Brian Weiler
So he had that well-rounded experience. varied background where it made him ah ah really good candidate and he's done an awesome job and um actually within our trade association he's grown up highly too.
01:20:45
The Jobs Podcast
do
01:20:50
The Jobs Podcast
What you just mentioned there about the varied experience, is that something that pretty much everybody in your industry, you're not going to be able to just buy a house and plant down roots and stay here.
01:21:00
The Jobs Podcast
You probably need to accept the fact that in order to get to the top, you're going to have to move around a number of times before you finally settle.
01:21:07
Brian Weiler
Okay. Not, I mean, a good friend of mine is the director of the Tampa St. Pete Airport, um Tom Dewsbury, great guy.
01:21:13
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
01:21:16
Brian Weiler
Him and I actually both went to Embry-Riddle at the same time, both graduated, same class back in 88. And he went to Tampa St. Pete Airport um and started as a basic ops guy. Today, he's the director of that airport.
01:21:30
Brian Weiler
He spent his entire career at that airport. i mean, he knows every single thing about that airport.
01:21:35
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
01:21:36
Brian Weiler
I've moved around, I've been at five different airports um and I don't think one's right or wrong. So you have examples, but I will tell you most of the people that I've seen have moved around somewhat.
01:21:48
The Jobs Podcast
and okay
01:21:48
Brian Weiler
you know
01:21:48
Brian Weiler
um So I think there's no hard, fast rule, but I know when I look for people to put into senior positions, I like to see that variety of perspectives working under a variety of governances, working under a variety of issues and being successful in those issues.
01:22:09
Brian Weiler
Because there's no exact playbook for any, I mean, if you said the old the old adage in the industry was you've seen one airport, you've seen one airport. We're all different and everyone's a different approach to that. So I look in things I look for if I can,
01:22:23
Brian Weiler
ah But also I've i've promoted up. I actually my my airport operations manager ah Chuck Cowan, awesome guy. He started as a firefighter over in the ARF area. He had done that, became a trainer, became the ARF chief, and then we promoted him up that. I've got people in the guy prior to him was a fueler, went over, became an ARF. And I say ARF, that's aircraft rescue and firefighter.
01:22:47
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:22:47
Brian Weiler
They're near're the fire guys for the airport. So, and I think though you, and I do, think Dave and I have joked about this. it's people like him and I will come and go at airports and senior management positions, but every airport does need that person who's been there forever, who has that institutional knowledge and knows where, knows where the bodies are buried.
01:23:04
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:23:07
Brian Weiler
You know, I jokingly say that knows all the issues.
01:23:08
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:23:10
Brian Weiler
And for us, that guy's Chuck, he's been here 20 plus years and he's got a guy below below him, Eric, who I would trust those guys with my life.
01:23:10
The Jobs Podcast
yeah
01:23:18
Brian Weiler
They really handle the majority of the operational decisions at the airport.
01:23:21
The Jobs Podcast
Thank
01:23:23
Brian Weiler
I get very involved in going after that main that main project, going going to meet with that airline, working with our congressional delegation, working with board members on something, working with the mayor or the council. but That's more my role and then the the relationship with the business community out in the community.
01:23:40
Brian Weiler
Those are...
01:23:40
The Jobs Podcast
Those intimate, those guys that have that intimate knowledge of every single aspect of your building, that's the one, you find that switch in the basement that nobody knows what it does.
01:23:41
Brian Weiler
Oh,
01:23:49
The Jobs Podcast
And it's like, well, don't, don't flick it.
01:23:50
Brian Weiler
yeah.
01:23:51
The Jobs Podcast
It may turn the oxygen off or something, you know?
01:23:53
Brian Weiler
And I tell you, if there's an accident or if there's ah an emergency at the airport or if we have an aircraft emergency and we actually happen more often, you know, thankfully, the over overwhelming majority never amount to anything.
01:23:57
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:24:04
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:24:05
Brian Weiler
The guy we have in charge, the incident commander, he's our airport operations manager. It's not me I go to the center and I make sure the key stakeholders are informed. i'll help bring assets to the table.
01:24:16
Brian Weiler
But when you know what hits the fan out there on the airfield, you get good emergency people. It's the same thing at the fire department, police department.
01:24:23
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:24:23
Brian Weiler
When you have a major incident town, you don't want the city manager out there running stuff.
01:24:27
The Jobs Podcast
No.
01:24:27
Brian Weiler
you You want your battalion, do you want your you want your key people in emergency management that you trust and they know their job and you're smart enough to stay out of their way and help them.
01:24:29
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:24:37
The Jobs Podcast
You got to check your ego at the door and say, I'm not here to make myself feel better.
01:24:39
Brian Weiler
Exactly.
01:24:41
The Jobs Podcast
I'm here to get the best person for the job to solve the problem at hand.
01:24:43
Brian Weiler
Yep. When there's a major snowstorm, my primary job is to go get pizza.
01:24:49
The Jobs Podcast
ah There you go. Is there a, I know that you've done a number of things and, you know, you did the Marines and and whatnot, but was there ever a career that was kind of you saw it all, know, in your peripheral vision and you thought, you know, I might, it's something completely different than what you, your path took you. But you thought if I could go back and do it all over again, um might want to give that a shot.
01:25:11
Brian Weiler
I'll answer a different question. I really wish I had eight or nine lives.
01:25:15
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:25:15
Brian Weiler
i'd I'd like to go back and have been an air traffic controller in the FAA. I was a controller in the military. I would have liked to have done 20 years in the Marine Corps and see where I'm at on that. I would have liked to go ahead and got my pilot's license and gone and been a corporate pilot.
01:25:30
Brian Weiler
Or actually, I understand what I probably would have done is I would have liked to fly cargo. The nice thing about cargo, in fact, I've got a young kid who I've i've mentored for a number of years. when I remember him coming to me several years ago and he wanted to be a ah pilot.
01:25:43
Brian Weiler
Today he's flying, I kid you not, cargo international 747. And the thing about cargo is they don't care if you have a rough landing and they don't complain because it's cargo.
01:25:53
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:25:53
Brian Weiler
You know that, ah you know, I would have liked to 10 years ago, left Springfield and gone and rubbed that medium hub. ah You know, it's one that I would have liked to gone into academics and been the department chair at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
01:26:09
Brian Weiler
um I would, you know, I would be fine staying where I'm at and finishing my career. Part of me says I want the city council to make me city manager and I want to go be city manager for a while because I think that would be kind of, I love Springfield.
01:26:22
Brian Weiler
So I, not so much, I've never left the job where I burned a bridge, because that's a big no, no, you never do that. Now I've left jobs where I was like, eh, you know, I'm kind of ready for something different.
01:26:33
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Sure.
01:26:34
Brian Weiler
But I wish I had multiple lives, because I just, I'd love to go back and and finish those out. And and i every career I've done, I'd wish I could go back and see how that plays out.
01:26:45
Brian Weiler
But also, I like where I'm at. i
01:26:47
The Jobs Podcast
chair
01:26:48
Brian Weiler
I got a chance to spend a lot of time with my kids and, um you know, have those things. My wife and have been married 35 years. we I don't know. i'm i'm I could not be more blessed.
01:27:00
Brian Weiler
That's where I'm at.
01:27:02
The Jobs Podcast
Right on. Brian, this has been such a great conversation. It's a lot of a lot of just solid information if someone wants to get into your career field, but also as someone on the outside looking in, it gives me a snapshot into...
01:27:15
The Jobs Podcast
what, you you know, airport operations in the industry is kind of like. So I like that kind of stuff when I'm at the airport.
01:27:21
Brian Weiler
enjoyed it.
01:27:21
The Jobs Podcast
I, you know, I can see the the different aspects.
01:27:21
Brian Weiler
Yeah.
01:27:23
The Jobs Podcast
I know what those guys are doing and it might allow me to be a little more patient if things don't go my way sometimes. So thank you for being a guest. I really do appreciate it.
01:27:32
Brian Weiler
Yeah, thank you for inviting me.