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3rd October 2024
The ACA Deputy Chair Julie Black speaks to Aerospace Global News for their Women in Aviation Series
Aerospace Global News – Women in Aviation
“The infinite variety is what appeals to me”: Julie Black’s journey through chartered aviation
Julie Black has been in the aviation industry for nearly 30 years, starting her career as a graduate in the marketing department of London City Airport in the late ‘90s. After four years, working with the local business community and airlines to identify, establish and launch new routes, she moved to Biggin Hill Airport, where she was responsible for managing the airport’s own Executive Handling business. Her career took a new direction in 2003 when Julie joined Chapman Freeborn, where she later took the reins of the UK VIP / Executive team, overseeing a range of charter projects, including head of state flights and global music tours. Julie’s latest role is as Head of the UK based Executive Charter team at Hunt & Palmer, overseeing a busy team of brokers with a credible corporate client base on worldwide charter projects. Julie joined The Air Charter Association Board in 2015 and is now Deputy Chair.
What is your background in the industry? Where did it all begin for you?
I fell into it by mistake. I grew up in East London and my parents weren’t especially ambitious for me. By 16, I hadn’t even been on an aeroplane but had been to France and Spain by coach. I went to university to do a degree in communications, as far away as I could. Afterwards, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t have any obvious employment opportunities. So, I went to a temping agency and they placed me in the marketing department of London City Airport, just down the road from where I grew up.
It was so exciting. You could smell the kerosene and see the new City in Canary Wharf growing up around us. There were lots of people scurrying around in suits, all with places to go. I was completely hooked. I worked there for about five years while the airport grew massively. We identified route development opportunities, such as when the Swiss banks came to the Wharf so we started services to Switzerland.
I went from there to Biggin Hill to manage the executive airport handling as well as marketing and PR. The airport had a very diverse customer base from PPLs and flying schools to captains of industry and football teams coming and going. I like to learn a bit about what everybody does and discovered there were people who arranged these charters. I’ve been doing that now for more than 20 years. The infinite variety is what appeals to me. I never know what my day is going to look like as charter is almost exclusively a reactive business and as a result, it’s so interesting. And I’m easily bored – so this is perfect for someone with the attention span of a gnat.
What are your ambitions? Where do you want this to go?
Ultimately, I hope to lead a company like this (Hunt & Palmer). Yes, there are more women in aviation these days but still not enough of us in the boardroom.
Outside of my day job I’m also deputy chair of the Air Charter Association. At the heart of the Association are the operators and brokers. It’s a really important place for engagement. These days you can spend so long at a desk writing emails, making calls and sending paperwork back and forth and it’s quite abstract. Somewhere in the world an aircraft you’ll never fly on moves. It’s flown by a pilot you probably won’t speak to and transporting a passenger you’ll likely never meet. Until we come along and assert some control onto that mission and put some humanity into it, it’s hard to make a success of that.
My role at The ACA is an important way of keeping in touch with peers and those outside my immediate operational realm in the industry. We also provide professional training which is something I was super proud to be a part of developing and is a great way to give back to the industry that I love.
What is your best aviation memory so far?
There are so many of those moments that are well in excess of my first contacts in aviation. During my previous broking role I travelled around the world with rock stars. There are some great stories but regrettably for this piece, there are also several NDAs! I think the landmark project for me was circumnavigating the world in 18 days by private jet, managing a VIP music tour. It was an incredible opportunity to immerse myself in the operational nitty-gritty of a tour on a large VIP airliner, transporting 400 bags and some very high-profile principal passengers. It covered Asia, the US and Africa.
For a girl who grew up in East London who had not a clue what I wanted to do, the daughter of a man who worked at the Ford factory, I have outperformed my own expectations and I feel absolutely blessed. This tour though was an exhausting project and I thought: I’m never going to top this. It’s probably going to be unmatched.
But there are downsides. I’d given a lot of myself to my job. I’d had amazing clients and deeply entrenched relationships which were impeding the quality of my personal life. I’m very lucky that my partner has been incredibly supportive over the years. But I’d walk through the door at home and still be on the phone and on call 24/7/365. It was eroding my relationships and particularly that with my daughters (my twins are now 19) and had become exhausting.
Our business still does bands but I also oversee corporate and high net worth VIP charter and it’s better for my quality of life. You get one chance at life. It’s hard enough being a woman in the industry but also being a mother, it can be tough to keep up with those around you.
What is your best advice for younger people looking to follow in your footsteps?
There is no doubt what we do can be wonderfully cool. So, find out as much about the industry as you can. There’s so much more to it than pilots or engineers or air traffic controllers. There is so much innovation going on that’s truly above and beyond what you’d expect. As part of the ACA we’re trying to address skill shortages. We have a next generation group of young professionals who do outreach with schools and universities to talk about opportunities in air charter.
We also launched an internship to mark the 75th anniversary of the ACA and have brought some young people in to work with companies, complete a written project and explore many different facets of the industry they might never have known existed.
Go to smaller airports like Farnborough and Gloucester. Speak to the people who work there, learn what they do and put yourself out there. Be communicative. Go and smell it, touch it. One of the things that got me was the smell of the jet fuel, the sound of the planes roaring down the Dock at London City and the businesspeople running around. This is evocative. It is not just a job. It is about heart and soul.
Social media puts the world in two dimensions. We have got to move beyond, remember the importance of human relationships and the operational excitement of what we do. It’s not just an Instagram post of me at the airport, going on holiday. It’s so much more.
Do you have any heroes or idols from the sector, past or present?
Hunt & Palmer have managed to keep this business about people. Many companies go big corporate and it’s about the brand and recognition and it loses sight of the people at the heart of it – the people who work with it, those who interact with it and customers and suppliers. Our reputation is incredible and my interaction with the guys before I even worked with them made it the company I wanted to work for. I genuinely found they had a level of integrity that is really rare. So many people in aviation just chase the money. They can forget about who is chartering aircraft and why. I’m privileged to work with them. And the people at the ACA are a board of volunteers across our industry who are committed to developing and improving the industry and to bringing young people in and that makes them all pretty heroic as well.
What inspires you about this sector and the people in it?
With aviation we can traverse the world, we can expand our horizons and we can connect cultures. All of those things make us better as human beings. Most people are excited to get on an aircraft to go somewhere and see things. We can travel and we should, whether we choose to do that on a bike, by car or an aeroplane, that is always something to do outside of our everyday lives. Aviation also does good in the world and is innovative.
The first transatlantic flight to use SAF was a Gulfstream G600 business jet. We are at the forefront of innovation. Things we now take for granted like winglets on airliners were developed on business jets first. Aviation is easily knocked but it contributes massively to the global economy, employs millions of people worldwide, transports our goods and is innovating at every opportunity. For me it will never grow old.
What does success look like?
Success is often defined in monetary terms. But I’ve learned that’s not necessarily the case. Being able to look at myself in the mirror and know I’ve held on to my integrity, been true to myself and the people who are important to me. Being able to take a decision that is the right one is not always easy. I also want to give back.
What is the biggest challenge you are facing?
The environmental footprint of aviation is always under attack, but there is a lot of innovation going on like the increased use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and development of alternative power plants sources such as electric or hydrogen fuels that will by definition start on smaller aircraft and will be scaled up. None of us know how long it’s going to take but technology always astounds me.
At the ACA we are working our hardest to fortify and enhance the relationship between people that charter aeroplanes and aircraft operators by improving standards through training and networking opportunities. This helps reduce the risks of inadvertent illegal charters, for example, and also helps our industry to avoid fraud.
The other threat is the geopolitical instability around the world which has created huge swathes of airspace we can’t overfly and sanctions against different nations. There’s a sense of unease that has changed some of what we do and how we do it. Aviation is adaptable though and navigating these challenges is why I love this industry so much.