AFC Story
Let me tell you a story about Air France Consulting. AFC was started in 1997 as a consulting agency for airlines, airports, tour operators, general sales agents, travel agents and airport authorities. It started as a small division of Groupe Air France. In no time the company grew fast. Business was pouring in. AFC had an edge over many other consulting firms and that was expertise. We had experts within the AF Group itself. In no time units were opened in London, Brussels, Berlin, New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore and many more. In 2001 AFC Holland was opened with 2 employees. Within 1 year it grew to almost 30. After a stint at KLM, I joined AFC Holland. It was something new for me, but they gave me chance and I was willing to learn. And with the help of my coach, Grietje and Brenda I did.
As team # 3, we were specialists in Asia and were sent there 90% of the time for projects. It was our jobs to know everything about Asia... the people, the culture, the foods, the customs, the good things and the bad. We were trained by outside people who knew everything about Asia. And so I grew to love this part of the world, I've never been to before this time. I saw a lot, I experienced a lot, I ate good stuff as well as some nasty sh*t, but all-in-all it was a good time.
Our now empty cafetaria
But AFC was also about being a team, whether you were in team #1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Our Unit Manager tried to make it a family. Yes... many times they were fights and disagreements, but in the end we tried to patch things up and talk it out. To accomplish this, we had to things that contributed to team-building. Like the time we had to go to the Euromast and absail from it. Team-buidling or not, that was some scary-ass shit! But it actually worked... together, we helped each other cross the line of fear and make it down that tall tower.
Euromast in Rotterdam
Dennis, Adriaan, me and Francesco
Adriaan and me overcoming our fears together
Now that we are not co-workers anymore I can openly say to Raymond: je hebt een lekker kontje!
Part of the gang
AFC'ers taking a cruise on the Maas
Francesco & Ryan
We were so happy with our accomplishments
Having dinner with the group
Francesco & Adriaan
The gang
Because of AFC, I got to see a lot of the world. China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Mexico, USA, Canada, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Kenya, South-Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey and many more other countries. I also was in Paris more times that I can count. I even carried my parents and brother a few times.
Grietje & me at Tokyo Narita International Airport
Brenda & me chilling out at Xian Yang Market in the Pudong district in Shanghai
Grietje & me in a hotel in... uhm... somewhere...
A spontaneous hug from an unknown lady in Seoul, South-Korea
Hong Kong, baby!
Public toilet in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam
Grietje & me at a restaurant
One of the best experiences of my life; The Great Wall of China
Grietje & me in The Forbidden City in Beijing
In the night train with some tourists in South-Korea
On board a plane
Sleeping
City of Paris
Christmas in Paris with Mom
City of Prague
Buddy Yannick surprised me in Paris
Terracotta Army in Xi'an
Eating river lobster in Shanghai. What? You thought I couldn't use chopsticks? With all my trips to Asia and a half-Asian boyfriend... duh! Lol!
Brenda and me being fools in the streets of Kuala Lumpur
Eiffel Tower, Paris with Grietje
I stayed in some bad hotels, some good hotels and some of the best hotels in the world. From Motel 6, to Comfort Inn, to Sheraton, to Accor, to Hyatt and the Ritz Carlton. I flew in Economy Class, Business Class and First Class. I took busses, rental cars, metro, trains and even tuk-tuks and rickshaws to get around cities.
Rickshaw fun with Grietje & Brenda
I've done projects for big names like De Boer & Wendel, Nouvelle Frontières, TUI, Sheraton Hotels, Djoser, Royal Air Maroc, Air Mauritius, Alitalia, SkyTeam, KLM, Martinair, Does & Cadushi, Apple Vacations, Air Canada, TAM, Transavia.com, Thomas Cook, Schiphol Group, New York Airport Authorities, FedEx, Raffles, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air and Cathay Pacific. Some projects were great successes and yes... even with all of our expertise, we had some failures. We tried to help VARIG of Brazil, but we failed and they went bankrupt. Same thing for Air Madrid. And they were more. It was a bitter pill to swallow. But you overcome it, you learn from the experience, you grow and you move on.
At AFC I gained a lot, but also lost. I lost a co-worker with whom I was in a car accident last year.
I lived, Winston died. It was a difficult period in my life. But you pick-up the pieces, pull yourself together and try to move on.
I learned a lot about myself at AFC. I learned that although I like aviation, it is definitely not my life. I see it more as a hobby. I learned that I am stubborn and that sometimes, I need to mellow out. I learned that I have to be patient in a lot of situations. I learned that I am not always right, even though I think I am. I learned that I believe in myself as much as I doubt. I learned to be kinder to people. I learned that I do have leadership qualities and that I can manage a team. I learned to work in a team. I learned to share the successes as well as the losses, regardless if you did most of the work or not. But the biggest lesson I learned is to have compassion for other people.
I don't regret one day I had at AFC. I had good times and sweet memories. So as I leave this company and go into another chapter in my life, I look back and I smile. Some people I will see again and some people I most likely won't.
Final hours with Dennis & Metin
Feeling sad, Ricardo?
Raymond giving his final speech
Final hour with Raymond & Ricardo!
Then Rob made the final speech and gave us a little gift to remember AFC by. It was a little model airplane of the 777 made out of real gold. Precious! And then... it was time to really say goodbye.
Goodbye Rodney. Have a good time in Suriname
Tot ziens Marlon. Succes bij SITA Nederland
Auf Wiedersehen, Metin. Do your best at AFC Brussels and enjoy your new life in Belgium
Dennis the menace. Nothing more to be said
See ya later, Henk! You're a good guy!
Dag Cor! Je was eigenwijs en tóch mocht ik je graag! Het ga je goed!
Ricardo... pfff... we had fights every week. And still I was your favorite and yes... you were mine. I can say that now.... ;-)
Raymond. The Dutch Arubian. Biertje?
Then it was my...
... turn to say...
... goodbye. Yes, I admit... we all shed some tears. Even me.
But as we all say goodbye to AFC Holland, I can truly say we had a blast. We definitely tried to make the sky the best place on earth. Air France style...
Then we cleaned out our lockers for the last time.
Rob and Dennis at the lockers
Then 2 security guards came and escorted us outside of the buidling in Amstelveen. We turned in our Air France ID and then... the show was over. And so the story ends.
As team # 3, we were specialists in Asia and were sent there 90% of the time for projects. It was our jobs to know everything about Asia... the people, the culture, the foods, the customs, the good things and the bad. We were trained by outside people who knew everything about Asia. And so I grew to love this part of the world, I've never been to before this time. I saw a lot, I experienced a lot, I ate good stuff as well as some nasty sh*t, but all-in-all it was a good time.
Our now empty cafetaria
But AFC was also about being a team, whether you were in team #1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Our Unit Manager tried to make it a family. Yes... many times they were fights and disagreements, but in the end we tried to patch things up and talk it out. To accomplish this, we had to things that contributed to team-building. Like the time we had to go to the Euromast and absail from it. Team-buidling or not, that was some scary-ass shit! But it actually worked... together, we helped each other cross the line of fear and make it down that tall tower.
Euromast in Rotterdam
Dennis, Adriaan, me and Francesco
Adriaan and me overcoming our fears together
Now that we are not co-workers anymore I can openly say to Raymond: je hebt een lekker kontje!
Part of the gang
AFC'ers taking a cruise on the Maas
Francesco & Ryan
We were so happy with our accomplishments
Having dinner with the group
Francesco & Adriaan
The gang
Because of AFC, I got to see a lot of the world. China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Mexico, USA, Canada, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Kenya, South-Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey and many more other countries. I also was in Paris more times that I can count. I even carried my parents and brother a few times.
Grietje & me at Tokyo Narita International Airport
Brenda & me chilling out at Xian Yang Market in the Pudong district in Shanghai
Grietje & me in a hotel in... uhm... somewhere...
A spontaneous hug from an unknown lady in Seoul, South-Korea
Hong Kong, baby!
Public toilet in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam
Grietje & me at a restaurant
One of the best experiences of my life; The Great Wall of China
Grietje & me in The Forbidden City in Beijing
In the night train with some tourists in South-Korea
On board a plane
Sleeping
City of Paris
Christmas in Paris with Mom
City of Prague
Buddy Yannick surprised me in Paris
Terracotta Army in Xi'an
Eating river lobster in Shanghai. What? You thought I couldn't use chopsticks? With all my trips to Asia and a half-Asian boyfriend... duh! Lol!
Brenda and me being fools in the streets of Kuala Lumpur
Eiffel Tower, Paris with Grietje
I stayed in some bad hotels, some good hotels and some of the best hotels in the world. From Motel 6, to Comfort Inn, to Sheraton, to Accor, to Hyatt and the Ritz Carlton. I flew in Economy Class, Business Class and First Class. I took busses, rental cars, metro, trains and even tuk-tuks and rickshaws to get around cities.
Rickshaw fun with Grietje & Brenda
I've done projects for big names like De Boer & Wendel, Nouvelle Frontières, TUI, Sheraton Hotels, Djoser, Royal Air Maroc, Air Mauritius, Alitalia, SkyTeam, KLM, Martinair, Does & Cadushi, Apple Vacations, Air Canada, TAM, Transavia.com, Thomas Cook, Schiphol Group, New York Airport Authorities, FedEx, Raffles, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air and Cathay Pacific. Some projects were great successes and yes... even with all of our expertise, we had some failures. We tried to help VARIG of Brazil, but we failed and they went bankrupt. Same thing for Air Madrid. And they were more. It was a bitter pill to swallow. But you overcome it, you learn from the experience, you grow and you move on.
At AFC I gained a lot, but also lost. I lost a co-worker with whom I was in a car accident last year.
I lived, Winston died. It was a difficult period in my life. But you pick-up the pieces, pull yourself together and try to move on.
I learned a lot about myself at AFC. I learned that although I like aviation, it is definitely not my life. I see it more as a hobby. I learned that I am stubborn and that sometimes, I need to mellow out. I learned that I have to be patient in a lot of situations. I learned that I am not always right, even though I think I am. I learned that I believe in myself as much as I doubt. I learned to be kinder to people. I learned that I do have leadership qualities and that I can manage a team. I learned to work in a team. I learned to share the successes as well as the losses, regardless if you did most of the work or not. But the biggest lesson I learned is to have compassion for other people.
I don't regret one day I had at AFC. I had good times and sweet memories. So as I leave this company and go into another chapter in my life, I look back and I smile. Some people I will see again and some people I most likely won't.
Final hours with Dennis & Metin
Feeling sad, Ricardo?
Raymond giving his final speech
Final hour with Raymond & Ricardo!
Then Rob made the final speech and gave us a little gift to remember AFC by. It was a little model airplane of the 777 made out of real gold. Precious! And then... it was time to really say goodbye.
Goodbye Rodney. Have a good time in Suriname
Tot ziens Marlon. Succes bij SITA Nederland
Auf Wiedersehen, Metin. Do your best at AFC Brussels and enjoy your new life in Belgium
Dennis the menace. Nothing more to be said
See ya later, Henk! You're a good guy!
Dag Cor! Je was eigenwijs en tóch mocht ik je graag! Het ga je goed!
Ricardo... pfff... we had fights every week. And still I was your favorite and yes... you were mine. I can say that now.... ;-)
Raymond. The Dutch Arubian. Biertje?
Then it was my...
... turn to say...
... goodbye. Yes, I admit... we all shed some tears. Even me.
But as we all say goodbye to AFC Holland, I can truly say we had a blast. We definitely tried to make the sky the best place on earth. Air France style...
Then we cleaned out our lockers for the last time.
Rob and Dennis at the lockers
Then 2 security guards came and escorted us outside of the buidling in Amstelveen. We turned in our Air France ID and then... the show was over. And so the story ends.
posted by Traveller at 9:02 PM
14 Comments:
Dat was een mooie stuk, Ryan Mitchell. Ik heb ook met heel veel plezier met je gewerkt.
Henk
Thanks for sharing that with us and thanks for sharing all of your AFC adventures as well. Thanks.
Lyle
Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre.
Making the sky the best place on earth.
Nous sommes Air France Consulting et nous étions les meilleurs, n'est-ce pas? Salutations de votre collègues à Paris!
Pascale & Monique
That almost made me cry.
Anonymous from Guatemala
And so the story ends and the new one is set to begin. All I can say Ryan is that I am very proud of you and what you have accomplished. You came far and your are going further. I always believed in you and knew you were capable of doing anything you set out to do. Same goes for Junior.
Remember life is full of hello's and goodbyes, so take all the lessons you learned from these past years with you and grow from them. And know that whatever direction you take in life, your mother and I are always behind you.
Love, Dad
Nou Rayn, alvast succes met je volgende baan. Ik wacht in spanning af!
Miekesch
The world was really your playground, Mr. Traveller. You combined your hobby with your job and you are lucky in doing so.
So what's next? Do tell!
Marlon
Ryan is een beetje deprie vandaag. Maar dat had ik al verwacht.
What's next? Mijn mannetje gaat eerst een maandje fulltime vliegen voor de blauwe zwaan, alvorens hij met zijn nieuwe baan begint. En als eerste doen we samen een Houston om ma bij familie weg te brengen!
Rob
You got escorted out the buidling by security?
I knew you Air France people were a set of criminals!
Long live BA! Hahahahaha!
C R I M I N A L S!
(just had to rub it in)
Lesley
Hoi Ryan. Gisteren was echt een rare dag man. Ik kwam thuis en voelde me heel vreemd. Het is gewoon raar dat je de volgende dag helemaal niks voor AFC te doen had. Normaal keek ik altijd naar mijn online schema, zat ik een verslag uit te typen of was ik me aan het voorbereiden op een reis. Enfin, ik ga lekker 2 weken op vakantie naar Cuba en dan bij de nieuwe baas beginnen. Geniet van de rest van de zomer en ik spreek je nog wel.
Ciao!
Dennis
Je bent echt onverbeterlijk. Toch maar bedankt over de commentaar over mijn kont. Als ik wist dat je zat te kijken, zou ik nog strakkere spijkerbroeken hebben gedragen. Lol!
Maar even serieus; ik heb het ook heel leuk met je gehad en heb heel veel steun van je gekregen de laatse paar weken. En we houden zeker contact aangezien we allebei in Rotjeknor wonen.
Na veel aandringen van m'n vrouw, ga ik toch gebruik maken van de IPB regeling en gaan we met de kinderen naar... ja, hou je vast... ARUBA! Ik hoop dat het allemaal goed gaat. Maar KLM en Martinair hebben hier en daar enkele plekjes open naar AUA, BON en CUR en mocht dat niet lukken heb ik nog altijd AF naar CCS en SDQ als alternatief. Zat op de lijst te kijken en VH maakt ook deel uit van ZED.
Ga wat oud-collega's opzoeken in Savaneta mij de mariniers kazerne.
De mazzel!
Raymond
VH vliegt niet meer naar Aruba, let op!!!
aldo i didnt quite understand the santo domingo and caracas phrase.
bedoel je dat je AMS-CCS of AMS-SDQ zou vliegen en dan vandaar naar AUA???
Precies zoals je het zegt, anoniem. Raymond bedoelt dat hij CCS of SDQ als escape gaat gebruiken. In ZED zijn AMS en CDG gelijk, dus dan vliegt hij met AF AMS-CDG-CCS of AMS-CDG-SDQ eb vandaar door met een andere ZED maatschappij naar AUA. Als jij zegt dat VH niet mer op AUA vliegt, weet ik niet welke maatschappij in die regio deel van ZED uitmaakt. Als er geen andere maatschappij is, moet je alsnog een volbetaalde ticket naar AUA kopen en dan is CCS de goedkoopste optie. Maar AMS/RQ weet daar meer van.
Mijn vraag is eigenlijk hoe het zit met de IPB regelingen. Degene die het behouden, behouden die van AF of van KLM? En voor hoe lang?
Lies
Bedankt! Ik was me er niet van bewust dat Aeropostal niet meer op Aruba vloog. Sinds wanneer dan?
Voorlomt onnodige verassingen. De vlucht voor morgen staat er redelijk goed voor, maar is overboekt vanuit St. Maarten. Dus als er veel no-shows zijn ga ik, maar zo niet dan kies ik een alternatief. Ik heb echt geen zin om ge-offload te worden op St. Maarten met een vrouw en 2 kinderen.
En om op je vraag terug te komen Lies; iedereen heeft een andere regeling getroffen. Er waren verschillende opties bij de afvloeiregeling. Ryan heeft het niet op zijn log geschreven, maar we treden pas 30 september uit dienst bij AFC. Dit is zo gedaan zoadt degenen die nog geen andere baan hadden de tijd hebben om eentje te zoeken. Degene die dat wel hebben krijgen dus een dubbele salaris tot eind september. Dus tot eind september mag ik gebruik maken van de IPB regelingen. Daarna houd het voor mij op.
Raymond
Post a Comment
<< Home