44 PROFESSIONAL WOMANS MULTICULTURAL MAGAZINE WWW.PROFESSIONALWOMANMAG.COM

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hen mentor and company founder Beti Ward passed unexpectedly in 2018, the then-vice president Tanja Janfruechte suddenly found herself at the controls of a booming airfreight company, Pacif- ic Air Cargo (PAC). Wards business instincts, self-ef- facing humility and elegance were already much admired and respected by business leaders in this male-dominated industry, but Janfruechte has since shown her Jimmy Choo's to be a perfect fit as CEO. Headquartered at Los Angeles International Air- port (LAX), and with a sizeable operation in Hono- lulu (HNL), Ward and Janfruechte split their time between gridlock and paradise and carved a repu- tation for rapidly and successfully adapting to market changes. That agility would prove invaluable to Jan- fruechte in 2020. No other industry I know of is subjected to as many external forces beyond its control, said Tanja Janfruechte, PAC CEO. Whether its unpredictably luctuating fuel prices, international conflicts, an eco- nomic recession or a global pandemic, we have to re- main nimble and able to change our business at short notice. Flexibility is definitely in PAC's DNA and I am forever grateful to our people who take all these changes in their stride and make us stronger.

Out-of-the-Box Thinking

Since COVID-19 struck, the carrier has seen a massive 70 percent drop in its airfreight volumes out of Hawaii. The tourism-dependent islands saw a complete shutdown of passenger flights, and that not only meant there were no arriving visitors, but it also meant that cargo -- often carried in the bellies of pas- senger aircraft -- also dried up. Much of that cargo from Asia, Australia and New Zealand was previous- ly transshipped onto Pacific Air Cargo's B747-400 freighter destined for markets on the U.S. mainland, but that business dried up overnight. This is when Janfruechtes out-of-the-box thinking kicked in, as she explains, Once a week, we arranged for the flight from Los Angeles to fly on to Asia, af-

Up in the Air:

Navigating Challenging Times

PHOTO CREDIT: TANJA JANFRUECHTE

ter unloading in Honolulu, where it was chartered out to satisfy the insatiable demand for cargo capacity from China and Korea to the U.S. West Coast, and that meant we didnt have to eat the cost of low car- go volumes on the backhaul flight from HNL. That decision proved a great success and has now been in- creased to twice weekly charters. While HNL backhaul flights suffered, the demand for goods from the mainland soared as Hawaii's 'stay-at-home' residents turned to e-commerce to fill the void left by local businesses that were shuttered by the pandemic. That meant flying additional ser- vices from LAX to clear the huge backlog that was building.

Successful Logistics

Janfruechte is convinced that out of adversity comes opportunity, and she and her team have spent months discussing with partners the logistics required for the safe and timely distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines. We have always had stringent processes in place for the handling of temperature-sensitive phar- maceuticals, but the scale of this pandemic means that, as an industry, were looking at the largest or- chestrated airlift in peacetime history. We had to make sure all our ducks were in a row, and thankfully, we are blessed to have some awesome partnerships, Janfruechte explained. Weeks before the first vaccine flight, PAC was able to successfully pressure test its procedures by han- dling the offload in HNL of a large shipment of test equipment from a chartered Kalitta Air Boeing 767. According to Janfruechte, it went without a hitch, and weeks later the company shipped the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccine, destined for American Samoa. That was day 1 of the U.S. airlift. It is quite special to us to have been classified as essential workers from the outset of this pandem- ic and to see how much pride our people took when we flew urgent PPE to Hawaii pro bono. It has been extremely rewarding for our people to bring vital sup- port to their local communities during this unprece- dented crisis, Janfruechte said. Despite all the challenges, this smart and gracious business leader continues to seize new opportunities, and has plans to grow the business through creative out-of-the-box thinking and strong teamwork. Its a great source of pride that we have been able to pre- serve jobs despite COVID-19 and continue actively hiring to support our growth strategies, said Jan- fruechte. Overall, I remain cautiously optimistic for the future.

Source: Pacific Air Cargo

Tanja Janfruechte

Building long- lasting partnerships through integrity and exceptional service."

-- Pacific Air Cargo