My name is Connor. I’m an airline pilot, and although flying wasn’t exactly what I went to school for, it turns out it’s a pretty good gig.
By trade, I’m an analyst. I went to school to crunch numbers, articulate strategy, and build products for banks. From July 2010 until May 2017, I worked for Citibank, earned my degree at Baruch College in New York, got hired as a consultant at a FinTech company, and was eventually hired by Morgan Stanley. I enjoyed it.
I never had the goal of flying professionally for a living, but I always had an appreciation for the complexity of the airline industry and what went into the operation on a daily basis.
Half-way through the decade, when I made Director at Morgan Stanley and they moved my desk over to the window, I had a spectacular view of the Upper New York Bay. From the 40th Floor of One New York Plaza, I saw planes over Breezy Point fly the Parkway Visual into Kennedy. I watched arrivals fly up the Hudson on approach to LaGuardia that were so close to my window that I could see passengers taking pictures of Manhattan with their phones. And as I packed up my desk each night, I caught the glimmer of 450-watt landing lights from the traffic flying into Newark at dusk, in a line of airplanes extending beyond the horizon.
Needless to say, my opinion eventually changed. Airlines were in the midst of securing new labor contracts, and I realized that I could make a decent living by turning my hobby of flying around the tri-state area on the weekends into a real career.
So I quit my day job.
Fast-forward to today and those same analytical skills that I used on Wall Street are skills that have stayed with me. It was fun to use them to break down data and tell a story, and as it turns out, I can apply them just the same to the airline business.
The tone of my commentary will always be catered toward the people who know the least about this industry: the pilots.
You’re on Guard! is the vehicle I’m planning on using to offer brief insights into the industry. I’ll be using it to highlight key topics discussed on earnings calls, to compare/contrast what different airlines are doing with their fleet and why, and of course, to poke fun at Southwest. All while catering the tone of the commentary toward the people who know the least about it: the pilots.
I hope you enjoy.
If you’d like to send me an email about a topic you’d like me to cover, you can reach me at [email protected].
Illustration credit: Greg Kaley, coffeeandpretzels.com