And Then There Were None

When it comes to finding capable leaders to run the sprawling networks of airline catering suppliers, developing new menus, packing galleys, and negotiating innovative partnerships, times were pretty tough before Covid.

 

Over the last 20 years, the number of folks working behind the scenes at some of the largest airlines in the world has been on the decline. Mergers back in the early ‘00s kicked off waves of organizational consolidations. The pressures on the industry following the collapse of the US economy during the “great recession” made things worse.

 

A rapid-succession of changes in key leadership roles (especially with US carriers) lead to the inevitable; airlines have increasingly found themselves shuffling key contributors around from box to box in increasingly smaller organizational footprints. Words and phrases like “spans and layers”, “organizational optimization”, strategic partnerships, and the like have become all too familiar in many circles.

 

For a while, some carriers began to contemplate future challenges, and there was talk of career development and succession planning… Covid pretty much ended all of that.

 

In the wake of the massive financial impact the pandemic brought to the industry, airlines across the world began slashing their headcount. At carrier after carrier, it seems that catering professionals took a big hit.

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The combination of outright cuts, retirements, generous “early out” offers, and “voluntary separations” removed hundreds of years of experience from the industry.

 

There is currently no plan to replace it.

 

In my decades in the industry, I have seen tons of people with backgrounds in airports, finance, cargo, reservations, hotels, cruise lines, and shipping companies all come into the space and fail spectacularly. That’s not to say people can’t make a transition like that- of course they can…

 

Everyone that I have seen come into the catering space from other parts of the airline business utters the phrase “This is way more complicated than I thought!” at some point during their first 3 months on the job. In my experience, most don’t make it to 3 years.

 

With the bare bones catering currently being provided, I'm sure that airlines are doing just fine keeping things running with their diminished staffs. But what happens when airlines decide they want to bring everything back? What happens when your supplier management teams, who are likely now responsible for a bigger portfolio than pre-Covid, find out their catering suppliers had to jettison talent as well?

 

After 9/11, things fractured along “pre” and “post” lines… with a lot of the folks who made things work behind the scenes before huge changes the attack brought to the industry electing not to continue in the post-9/11 environment…

 

What if this unfolds in a similar way?

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Our sources tell us morale is pretty bad right now, with demotions, pay-cuts, and in some cases an outright exploration of wholesale outsourcing, causing people to at least consider their exit strategy, if not setting them on the path of actively looking.

 

This is an admittedly complicated business, and it takes a while to learn the ins and outs of it. For those who are still around, they are now experts in the “post covid” world, and eventually, those who are not locked down at their current airline will become valuable free-agents. It’s always been that way, to an extent, but the field of players used to be a lot bigger…

 

In the old days, a carrier like American could lure talent away from a smaller operator like US Airways or TWA, but American long ago digested those airlines.

 

Where do you look today?

 

AA’s catering was led by the former US team following its merger, though many of those have now departed. At Delta, the key folks who until recently toiled away behind the scenes came from Northwest, largely displacing the equally tenured players from the Delta side in their merger. Jetblue has also moved their catering leaders around as well, where we are told some of the folks that had moved there from Delta have been pushed out… perhaps in anticipation of their Mint revamp.

 

At United, catering was probably the last vestige of “Continental” outside of Houston, with most (if not all) the key players coming in from down south via the merger of the two carriers. Most of those folks were then subsequently pushed out during one of the reorgs occurring since.

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UA definitely leads the pack when it comes to leadership changes, with a name change for the department, 3 different VPs in the last 5 years, and a complete turnover of every MD role in the catering org, (including one who is now leading the catering program at Alaska). All of that was all before Covid. Our sources tell us that now things are much… we’ll say “leaner”…with dozens of downgrades and career development opportunities for their folks all but eliminated. It’s probably a safe bet the folks keeping the lights on at UA will be on speed-dial for headhunters.

 

Over in Europe, Lufthansa cut loose it’s LSG Sky Chefs units, as well key design and development businesses. One has to wonder how the changes to their relationship will impact future design work.

 

When it comes to those actually running the kitchens, the story is much the same. Consolidation continues to reduce the number of roles out there, and aside from opportunities in places like Jeddah, opportunities remain very rare.

 

The outlook will almost certainly improve as vaccination rates climb and travel restrictions are eased. Hopefully in a responsible manner. Though the outlook is better than it has been, the music is unlikely to start back up anytime soon.

 

If you’re working in the industry today and would like to share your opinion on things within your organization, please drop me a line at dan@bigwheelsolutions.com.

 

It will get better, we are all in this together.

 

-Dan