ryone regarded the other as a UFO. Then I came back to France and spent another year working on alliances for Air France-KLM, before leaving to join Corsair as Executive Vice President Sales. I had left a huge ocean liner to join a sailing boat, a small airline, but for more excitement, with a network covering Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and North America. I left Corsair when it was sold by TUI to a German fund, with whom I didn't get on. It was at Corsair that I discovered APG, which represented us in Mali, Canada and the USA. I immediately got on well with Jean- Louis Baroux and Sandrine de Saint Sauveur. When I left Corsair, they advised me to set up my own company. Two years later, Jean-Louis called me one morning and asked if I was free for lunch. He told me that the General Secretary of APG Network, also a former Air France employee, was leaving. Was I interested in taking over the job? Yes. And so the APG adventure began for me, after this brief introduction to make it clear that the APG team has a fundamental knowledge of the airline industry.
ned after Covid, I send a warning letter, and then we follow up. Every two months, we call to see how things are progressing and what the action plan is. Basically, we respond to calls for tender from airlines. When an airline approaches APG to be represented in 5, 10 or 15 coun- tries, we have to be able to assure them that they will have the same level of service in those 5, 10 or 15 countries. In practice, this means that we have to check that our members will deliver exactly the same service in diffe- rent part of the world. That's why we're vigilant: one wrong representation and you risk losing everything. That's also why there's real solidarity between APG members. Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: We're living in a complex geo- political situation. Is it easier to deal with on a business level than on a political level? Antoine Huet: From a business point of view, I have to say that it's managed pretty well. That's what impressed me most about the APG network. Firstly, because there's a good knowledge of each other: at our meetings, you can see our representative from Israel joking with our representatives from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon or Morocco. That's the beauty of what Jean-Louis Baroux and Sandrine de Saint Sauveur have managed to build, a family spirit: the relationship between our members is so strong that it goes beyond the geopolitical aspects. We may have criticisms to make of each other, but that remains within the framework of a close-knit family: the interest in staying together outweighs eve- rything else. Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: This year's World Connect by APG asks the question: is it politics or economics that drives air transport? Antoine Huet: I would tend to say that the main driver is the eco- nomy. And as we've seen, when the economy grinds to a halt, there's no air transport. That's the Covid experience. So the eco- nomy is fundamental.
Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: You are in charge of the net- work of APG offices, how many members are there?
Antoine Huet: We have 125 members in nearly 160 countries, some of them covering several regions. I'm in contact with people of all nationalities: it's a network of independents, so we don't push them around. It's not a subsidiary, so there's no call to order. I really have to make sure that everyone plays the game. There are tensions here and there: between members, between certain members and head office. I manage all this with a board made up of Sandrine de Saint Sauveur, Jean-Louis Baroux, Richard Burgess, and two representatives from each region, elec- ted in turn each year, who help us govern with a code of conduct, a code of ethics and internal rules. If someone slips up a bit, we send them a reminder letter. And if that doesn't work, we can exclude them: they can no longer do business with APG, that's it. But the network works very well, it's stable, and real problems are rare. At the same time, we carry out a Business Performance Review, with two auditors, Isabelle and Olivia: they visit the countries and draw up an analysis grid to check that the basics are being res- pected. If the company gets a bad mark, which may have happe-
46
~B O R N T O B E A B I R D - 2024 ~
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software