ISTAT Jetrader - Winter 2020 - 20

Michael Steen

Vamshi Rokkam

Chief Commercial Officer,
Atlas Air Worldwide; CEO,
Titan Aviation Leasing

Vice President, Global
Head of Finance,
Titan Aviation Leasing

When were the first signs that this crisis was different
from those of the past?
Michael Steen (MS): It's important to frame who we are first.
Atlas Air Worldwide is the second largest air cargo airline
measured by freight tonne-kilometers around the world.
That comprises our three operating subsidiaries, Atlas Air,
Southern Air and Polar Air Cargo. The fourth entity that we
have is our dry leasing company, Titan Aviation Leasing. When
I talk about this crisis, I will talk about it in the context of the
group because it has affected each entity slightly differently.
My role here is chief commercial officer for the group, so all
commercial activity and strategy falls on me, and then I'm
also the CEO of Titan Aviation Leasing. So, I have one leg in
each camp, so to speak.

borders and imposing various testing regulations. Since we
are living in a globalized economy, we could see quite quickly
that this would have a broader effect than events such as
SARS, 9/11 or the global financial crisis back in 2008. As we
went through the first couple of months of the pandemic, we
could see a widespread impact. The first sign we saw was in
China, with the one-week extension of the Lunar New Year,
followed by manufacturers starting to shut down their plants
because workers couldn't get back after being home for the
holidays. That's really when we could see that this was going
to have a significant impact on the entire global economy.
But at that time, we couldn't really see the magnitude and
the fundamental impact that this was going to have on the
aviation industry.

We saw the first signs of this crisis
being different than the past because
of how rapidly the pandemic started
spreading worldwide.
We saw the first signs of this crisis being different than
the past because of how rapidly the pandemic started
spreading worldwide. Our company is present in about 100
countries around the world, with service to several hundred
destinations, so we saw this taking effect immediately. We
saw governments making unilateral decisions, shutting down
20

* T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I C AT I O N O F I S TAT

How has COVID-19 affected your business?
MS: First of all, if you think about the transportation of
airfreight, in normal times, 50% of global airfreight flies
on freighter aircraft like we operate, and 50% flies in the
belly space on passenger aircraft - that has been the
norm for the last couple of decades. With the onset of the
pandemic in mid-March, close to 90% of all intercontinental
widebody passenger capacity was grounded. Today, that
number is around 75%, which means that 75% of passenger
widebodies worldwide are still not operating. And any material
improvement from that level is not expected until a vaccine is
approved, available and widely distributed. It will also require
restoring confidence of consumers and travelers. This is where
I think the industry is going to see the largest change relative
to anything we have seen in the past. Everything is affected.
What we hear reported now through IATA and through some
of the major legacy carriers - in the Americas, Europe and
Asia - is that they expect they will be back at full operation or
ISTAT Jetrader - Winter 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ISTAT Jetrader - Winter 2020
