Heather Wells

Work closely with the sales department to plan aircraft routing, payload limits, and cost comparisons for current and potential future flights. Determine airport suitability for the Airbus 330, Boeing 757, and Boeing 747 fleet. Work with countries around the globe to obtain proper approvals for overflying and landing. Create the most efficient and profitable flight schedule for the company by reducing ferry flight miles, fuel burn, and operational costs.

Apply strong leadership talents and problem-solving skills in the airline to maintain team efficiency and organize workflows. Evaluate employee performance and coach and train to improve weak areas. Monitor workflow to improve employee time management and increase productivity.

Taught initial and recurrent classes to more than 140 aircraft dispatchers and management within Spirit’s 121 airline program prioritizing safety, FAA regulations, and company policies and procedures. Created testing programs, on the job training programs, and managing any issues that arise by improving training and evaluation processes.

Prepare flight releases for each flight including routing, fuel loads, checking weight and balance, and analyzing weather. Collaborate with each NCC department for successful flights. Brief each crew on their planes, airports, routes, weather, and any restrictions that may apply. Flight follow each flight from block to block to monitor progress, estimated time of arrival, changed routing, and weather changes along route.

Plan curriculum and implement new hire training for all new dispatchers. Train new hires to plan, file, and release safe and legal flight plans. Calculate fuel loads and performance for various aircraft and airports while taking into account weather and other factors that could affect flights. Communicate with crews and flight follow to help ensure safe flights. Create and teach recurrent classes for a department of over 50 dispatchers plus management. Work with the safety department to ensure best methods are being applied and collaborate new ways to improve our methods.

Schedule aircraft and crew members for each flight. Modify schedule minute by minute to adapt to inoperative aircraft, sick or fatigued crew members, and passenger/owner changes.

Held multiple sessions of private pilot classes per week and taught portions of multi engine ground school, managing hangars, customer service, scheduling flight lessons, answering phones, fueling aircraft, assisting pilots, keeping runways and taxi ways clear. Unicom communication and managing event hangar.

Planned and filed flight plans, calculated fuel loads and performance for various aircraft and airports, both domestic and international while taking into account weather and other factors that could affect flights, generated flight releases, communicated with crews, and flight followed to help ensure safe flights.