Message from the CEO

Its been all change in the staff team over the past weeks and apologies its taken some time for me to update members. Good progress is being made and I'd like to share with you all some of our interim plans and the teams vision for Fly UK going forward.

Fly UK is unique in the virtual airline world and embodies a community spirit like no other, something the staff team and I are very proud of and protective about. In our 15th Anniversary year I feel very honoured to be asked to take over as CEO at a time that Fly UK has been smashing it's records, but now is not a time to sit on our laurels as we have great momentum currently with fresh energy and ambitions.

So what can you expect from me and the team? Well firstly, more of the same stability that has built Fly UK into the successful VA that it is. I firmly believe in a "if it's not broken don't fix it" approach but at the same time bringing fresh new ideas and improvements. Our web and IT team have delivered us an excellent stable back-end system to allow us to bring many more new features to the membersip in the future and I must give huge thanks to Chris Sutcliffe and Jason Beaumont for their tireless work delivering this project and supporting the staff team and members during its roll-out.

Cosford Flight Sim Show 2019
It may not have escaped your attention that we will be proudly exhibiting at Cosford Flight Sim Show this year and we hope to welcome many current members as well as promote our community to a new audience. Preparations are in full swing led by Ross Elliot and we hope to deliver an impressive display and representation of what Fly UK is all about. We hope to see you there.

You may not find more much news from us in the meantime as we are saving up some big news and surprises for Cosford weekend.

Staff Team Structure

I'm sure you will appreciate that a change in structure and team does take some time to set out. I'd like to start with giving thanks and recognition to the whole staff team who have put forward ideas, ambitions and goals during the transition period. We have a great team of passionate volunteers with true passion and great vision for Fly UK.

I'd also once again like to take opportunity to give huge thanks to Derek Butterworth with whom it was a pleasure to work alongside on the exec team over the past years and the other staff members who have opted to take this time to step down and focus on other non VA demands and priorities.

With a transition from a dual Exec team to single CEO I've chosen to create a new structure giving the team clear lines of support with departmental heads providing support to their reports and promote cross structure working and improvements. The HR and Web team remain unchanged however the following three new departments have been created.

 This department consist of the roles dedicated to adding member benefit and support including Repaints, Technical documents, Marketing, AI/VMR projects and member support. The team will be headed up by Matt Crick. Matt has been highly engaged in his Community Manager role, with his sim and member knowledge is best placed to support the staff and teams that provide these vital key contributions to the member experience. 

 The heartbeat of Fly UK and our realistic operations model. The team consists of our Operations and Franchise managers responsible for our schedules and fleet utilisation. Katrina Hancock will head up the team and she has exiting plans for Nordic and Aurora to bring which have previously been discussed by the team, whilst protecting the integrity of our core mainstream services. Katrina has demonstrated a clear passion for a greater role in operations and this is her opportunity.
   

 Ron Kurz already headed up the Training Academy team, an existing well structured team that needed little input from me with some excellent ideas already.  So it's a natural fit for On-line events and services will now be added to Ron's team along with supporting the well establish and organised Flying Club. 


For now, that's all from me. A lot of work and ideas are progressing in the background and as mentioned, some big announcements to come at Cosford. Thank you from myself and the whole staff team for your ongoing support.

Regards

Matt Lewis