Aloha! Mahalo!

Aloha! Mahalo! These are two words that are not unfamiliar to anyone who lives and works in Hawaii, and also, not unfamiliar words to those who work for Hawaiian Airlines.

One person who works with Hawaiian Airlines who knows these words and also the business of aviation is Charles Nardello, vice president of maintenance and engineering for Hawaiian Airlines.

Nardello started his career in maintenance with USAir, in 1980, as a midnight shift maintenance check planner. This was his first exposure to aviation after graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1974.

He was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force and went to undergraduate navigation training at Mather Air Force Base in California. He then went on to combat crew training at Castle Air Force Base in California and then became a navigator on the U.S. Air Force KC-135. After completing combined flight instructor training, Nardello passed his knowlege on as an instructor navigator and standardization evaluation navigator. He pursued all of these later posts at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in New York.

"Once I left active duty in the summer of 1980," he said, "we moved to Pittsburg where I figured my newly acquired masters degree in systems management from the University of Southern California could be parlayed into a job. I had secured a position flying as a traditional guardsman with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. We arrived in Pittsburg after Labor Day and I started interviewing with Pittsburgh’s large companies: U.S. Steel, Gulf Oil, Westinghouse, and USAir. USAir had just changed its name from Allegheny Airlines."

On September 28, 1980, Nardello started his career in aircraft maintenance and assumed at that time that he would put in a probationary period and then bid for a different position in the airline by means of the company’s internal job placement system. The maintenance-planning job was originally intended to be an entry-level step into management. He didn’t know he would be spending the next 24 years in maintenance.

"I knew I wanted to be near airplanes," said Nardello, "I knew airplanes and air operations and I loved flying. So, it was an attraction to aviation, not necessarily maintenance that started it all."

According to Nardello, building a maintenance hangar at some of the major airports in the U.S. to house the Airbus A330 was one of his most challengine and expensive accomplishments.

"Until we built those hangars, the line mechanics were accomplishing large tasks like 767 and 757 engine change-outs in the elements, and we were sitting in our offices wondering what was taking so long," he said. "Mechanics and their management knew they needed a hangar and had the foresight to take pictures one day, of an engine change in the driving rain. This helped seal the deal to headquarters. Philadelphia was our hub for our newest, largest, and most expensive aircraft, the A330. Anyone spending the winter in Philadelphia knows we needed some shelter for that aircraft and its checks."

That winter resulted in the one of the most challenging projects, which required a huge capital investment by the airline.

There were other projects that were significant, as well. In 2000, Nardello undertook a complete rewrite of the maintenance and engineering computer system at US Airways. He had the entire IT staff working under the maintenance umbrella. "You really know what pressure is when you are in the approving authority to throw a switch on a new IT system," said Nardello. "Then came 9/11 and all our worlds changed and we are still reeling from its impact. Over one season, we went from expecting to be acquired by United Airlines to figuring how we would survive."

At this point Nardello was a departmental officer representing the business side of concessionary negotiations with the mechanics’ union during US Airways’s first Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Like thousands of other airline employees, he, too, was part of the job downsizing that was commonplace in the industry.

"I’m sure someplace in there is a bit of irony and like others, I assessed my career and discovered that I wanted to stay somehow attached to the industry," said Nardello. "On the bright side, here we are in paradise."

But it’s not always paradise. Twelve-hour days are not uncommon. "You have to get to work before [the 7:30 meeting] to read all the e-mails and review the open discrepancies so you are not behind the power curve when the meeting starts," Nardello said. "You have to have answers ready before the rest of the corporation starts coming into work and asking questions."

N ardello has extensive experience in the field and as such has some advice for anyone in the aviation industry or anyone interested in furthering their career in the field of aviation maintenance.

"Work just a little harder," he stressed, "and do things a little better than your competition." -- By Jim Romeo