Corporate Flight Department Grows From One, To 76
by ANN Associate Editor Annette Kurman
He may have been the leader of the
world's largest merchandiser, but Sam Walton was also a pilot. A
pilot of an Ercoupe, in fact. And he didn't use it as an executive
perk, but as a business tool that has brought untold success to his
company.
Wal-Mart's corporate flight department in Rogers, AR currently
overseen by Director of Aviation Dan Williams, is home to 76
pilots, 40 maintenance personnel, and 21 aircraft. The department
is currently in a seven-year transition to an all-jet fleet. And
although everyone has 24/7 availability, most business trips are
made during the traditional business week and the occasional
weekend.
Additionally, there are eight planes based in Toronto, and two
each in Recife and Sao Paula, Brazil, and Guatemala.
Their most senior pilot has flown for Wal-Mart for 26 years; one
of their most junior pilots, Julie Hall, 29, has worked for the
company for a little over six months. Their backgrounds are as
varied as the merchandise at Sam's Club, coming from the military,
airliners, transport, and flight instruction, virtually every facet
of aviation.
"We don't want to be one-dimensional [in hiring pilots]," said
Williams. "We want to bring people in with varied backgrounds and
experiences. It makes us [as a team] much stronger."
Quality of life is very important to the Wal-Mart flight
department. Each plane is flown by two pilots and "newbies" are
type-rated from day one. Pilots are away from home only two nights
a month and fly 15 days each month.
The Wal-Mart flight department looks for pilots with a "team
mentality" and other intangibles hard to quantify. Julie came to
the Wal-Mart aviation division from University of North Dakota and
her job as lead flight instructor. She called being a pilot for
Wal-Mart "an opportunity that popped up."
She recalled her interview in Bentonville, AR, where she and
other prospective Wal-Mart pilots spent the first day in casual
attire, touring the area and getting to know the "crew" at a
family-type barbecue.
It was as important to them that she liked what she saw as it
was that they liked what they saw," Julie recalled. With
senior management headquartered in Bentonville, there are plenty of
people to fly around the country, visiting Wal-Mart and Sam's Club
stores and distribution centers.
Explained Williams, Wal-Mart has a flexible and adaptable
strategy. Upper-level managers visit stores each week to gather
information and often return the following week to share new
strategy. Additionally, real estate teams, merchandisers and others
require the flexibility to go to destinations across the
country.
As Williams explained, Wal-Mart's aviation department is not the
typical "executive" transportation department. It's a business
tool, he reiterated, where anyone working for the company may end
up in the sky.
"The company goes that extra mile to award associates for their
hard work," he said.
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