AIN interview: Flight Options COO Michael Scheeringa
By Jeff Burger
March 1, 2008
People
http://www.ainonline.com/news/singl...-scheeringa/news/single-news-page/?no_cache=1“I started when I was six,” said Michael Scheeringa, when asked how he wound up in aviation. “I grew up in Phoenix, and when I was in grade school, I used to take the city bus to the airport and watch airplanes take off and land, and count passengers. At that point, I thought I’d want to build airports.”
Scheeringa’s ambitions evolved, but his fascination with aviation remained.
"By age 16, he was taking flight lessons. (He subsequently earned a pilot’s license but gave up flying for lack of time.)"
We have talked directly with the FAA in OKC and verified that Sh!tfinger has never held a pilots licenses of any kind, not even a student certificate. This only serves to add to speculation about why he has demonstrated through out his carrier such a disdain for pilots. Might it be that he has always wanted to fly but never had the guts or the aptitude to do it.
Later, while attending Arizona State University, Scheeringa worked at America West Airlines.
In 1991 he took a position at US Airways, where he ultimately became a vice president. Then, in 2004, he moved to Flight Options–a leading fractional provider that also offers jet cards and aircraft management–where he started as COO.
He did not move anywhere, he was fired form US airways after creating the most antagonistic environment between management and the pilots that has ever existed in the company. He has continued his attack on pilots in his time at Floptions resulting in the state of war we find ourselves in.
[Raytheon, which owned the company, recently sold it to a private-equity firm.–Ed.]
At the time, both US Airways and Flight Options faced major financial problems, and
we wondered why Scheeringa decided to jump from one frying pan to another–if not into the fire itself.
He came to Floptions because he needed a job after being fired from US Airways for his incompetence. How he managed to get a job with us after the track record he has begs many questions.