April 26, 2024
At the recent Alpha Eta Rho conference, industry leaders Julia Harrington of Axis Jet, Caleb Stitely of Chantilly Air and Gary Webb of AviationManuals took part in a Collegiate Connect panel to share insights with the aviation fraternity members on the breadth of careers in business aviation and offered advice to students on how to navigate professional hurdles.
As lead captain and base manager for Axis Jet in Chicago, IL, Harrington is responsible for staffing, scheduling and managing a team of pilots and supporting flight operations for an insurance company.
But her path was not linear, she said. After growing up attending airshows, graduating from an aviation program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and flight instructing for several years, Harrington could have continued instructing or gone to a commercial airline, but expanded her search for opportunities through LinkedIn and found a role at Axis Jet that led to the position she has today.
For Stitely, a career in aviation was not on his radar until he gained exposure to the industry after college. Today he serves as director of managed aircraft and charter at Chantilly Air, where he supports the business operations of one of the largest jet operators in the mid-Atlantic region.
Talking about what the next generation of the aviation workforce can do to find the right career fit, he reinforced the importance of networking with peers: “Those relationships truly are how business aviation and aviation in general goes around.”
Like many aspiring aviation professionals, Webb embarked on a career in the industry with his sights set on becoming a pilot. But after a few years into his aviation program at Liberty University, he realized he didn’t want to be in a cockpit full-time. Instead of getting his flight instructor certification, he went to business school.
Today, Webb serves as strategic partnership and operations manuals advisor at AviationManuals, and attributes his success post-business school to tapping his network of advisors and peers to find the right opportunities.
Harrington also shared an overview of the NBAA Young Professionals (YoPro) group and how students can take advantage of this professional network now and throughout their career. The group offers a platform to help foster lifelong engagement among the business aviation community.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.