Many aviation veterans and the team in Platinum Air Cargo in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands are mourning their founder and long-term chairman, Denis Prince (aka Mr. P). This ‘original Englishman’ passed away last week in Bournemouth, at the age of just 76, after a long battle with illness. He was born in London and educated in the most versatile way in terms of logistics management throughout his professional career.
He went through the Lufthansa Cargo school where he soon launched innovative services for the former Lufthansa subsidiary, German Cargo Services (an all-cargo charter operator) in the UK market. He then spearheaded Raeford Aviation Services, and eventually founded Platinum Air Cargo in 2001, with like-minded partners who supported his mantra of the air cargo ‘GSA that thinks like an airline’.
Denis and his team were instrumental in establishing the Miami-based all-cargo carrier, AmeriJet in Europe, through an innovative mechanism of feeding cargo to AmeriJet’s very competitive network in the Caribbean and parts of Central America; a task he assumed as their lead representative in Europe for more than 20 years until the business had grown so much that the principal decided to manage the European partners on its own. His legacy lives on in AmeriJet being represented by Platinum Air Cargo UK & The Netherlands, Aircargonet in Germany, and Allied Aviation in India.
But Mr. P didn’t stop there. He also contributed with his team to a remarkable success story when helping to launch Etihad Airways’ cargo division, starting from scratch in 2004. Etihad’s growth trajectory of reaching several hundred million USD of revenue within just a few years, could not have been achieved without the professionalism and commercial focus executed by the teams lead by Denis Prince. Platinum UK holds a record of loading 44 tons of commercial cargo onto an Airbus 340-300 passenger flight operated by Etihad Airways from London Gatwick to the carrier’s gateway, Abu Dhabi – even the German former LTU pilot in command and the Airbus sales team could hardly believe this was even possible.
Denis loved South Beach and Miami, obviously supported by his numerous activities for clients like AmeriJet, Turks Air (now Conquest Air Cargo), and TAB – Transportes Aereos Bolivianos. As a true Englishman, he certainly admired his Jaguar, however, of late got stuck with another animal as a vehicle – albeit a four-wheel ‘Animal’ from a Japanese manufacturer.
His no-nonsense attitude and commercial focus made him easy to work with, and he helped to educate many young airline professionals into assuming the quality aspirations that he had absorbed from one of the leading airlines of his times, and that still deliver revenue and world-class services to the principals served by the Platinum teams.
Denis’ personality will be dearly missed and certainly remembered by his friends and industry peers in airlines, ground handlers, or charter brokers the world over, when opening a classy bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape or Irish Whisky and giving a toast in memory of a true legend in air cargo with his favorite tipple. The air cargo community bows to you, Mr. P, and wishes you a safe onward journey.
Author:
Ingo Roessler
