Can Am Story

by Oliver Rill

  Matt wrote 180 for Can Am for next year and ‘never’ as the second, the end of the expansion. For the Greeks he wrote down 100 and another 100 for the end of their expansion.”

  “Ok, Matt, let’s see.” I said when I saw he was finished. “180, good. Me too. Never? Are you crazy? We stop at 1000. And the Greeks? 100 and 100? That French company has started up with ten already! Finishing expansion at 100. Yes, I agree to that.”

  The French guys will get some of Bucks stuff too and our figures look ok for a start-up in Athens.”

  “It’ll be a bad year for them over there. Do you really think we can use another 90?”

  “It’s not only going to be hard for them. If we do get all 90, we’re going to have to staff them, train those staff, get enough slots for them and make sure we have the customer demand for them all to get in the air and make them start giving us a return, too. We couldn’t simply take them over as they were, or we would start losing money on them just as Bucks has.”

  Things were going quite harmoniously between Aaron and me. His Fitness studios were running more or less smoothly. The one in Santa Barbara was doing better than the one in L.A. Florida was contributing to his income, too. But he did have to work harder for it than I did and the amount of work we did was different too. We didn’t have much free time, our life was taken up flying between one home and another.

  I had a long discussion with Airbus, they wanted me to make my figures available to them, so that they could increase the number of planes using significantly less capital. I agreed for Neos Dromos, but kept stumm about Can Am’s financial state. In the end, since they wanted to get rid of the returned planes, we managed to do a deal.

  Can Am closed at was 3.35 billion in 2021. Our planes were full and my account was bursting at the seams. Neos Dromos made a profit of a little more than two million, but I didn’t have a contract assuring me of ten percent. Of course I took nothing out of this new firm. I had an account of my own with 431 million! I was overwhelmed every time I looked at the figures. I really didn’t know what to do with it all.

  “Let’s max out Can Am and get another 300 planes!” We had wanted to bring the fleet up to a round thousand in 2022, but then realized we may have bitten off more than we could chew. We were now in the same class as American Airlines, United and Delta, but were dearer and had an iconic concept. The three hundred planes didn’t expand our profits any further and we closed again at a steady, if unsatisfying three billion.

  Since more planes didn’t translate into more profit, and since I didn’t really want to expand further, I decided to buy some planes out of their leasing agreements and swap some of the older planes for newer ones. We still had some 757s from the start of the enterprise.

  “What should I do now then? Am I unemployed or what?” Matt asked. “You’ve only planned maintenance stuff for 2023. I could maintain and oversee the routes we have, but that’s going to be so boring after all that I have had to deal with.”

  I grinned at him. “Do we want to fly to the city of love?”

  “Don’t tell me! You’ve got a plan.”

  “Red wine, baguettes, the Champs Elyees, the Eifel Tower. Eh? How about it?”

  “You are so gay!” He laughed. “Only if we can stay in the same suite that Diana used, so we get the whole experience.”

  “The man wants the Ritz. The man will get the Ritz!”

  Matt and I flew to Paris and for a while I felt as if I was just taking a vacation with him. We ate in superb restaurants, drank at small cozy bistros, strolled through malls and visited old buildings.

  The suite had two or three bedrooms and we had one each. Three days into our visit, we were taking a night-cap in the very comfortable suite lounge after dinner.

  “Oli, I can’t do this anymore without saying something. I’m sure you haven’t come all this way to Paris just to go shopping with me. What’s going on?”

  “I wanted to get a flavor of the French and, of course, to spend a little time with you. I only ever get to see you in the office and I feel I’m losing touch with you. We haven’t spoken properly for ages.”

  “I don’t believe a word of it. You’re angling for Air France’s share of the market, aren’t you?”

  “That’s a really negative spin on it, Matt! You really should be more positive.”

  “Come on, spit it out. I can’t live with this suspense.”

  “I thought, before you died of boredom, and I choke on my money, we could sweeten French life a little.”

  “That sounds more like it! Go on.”

  “A modern Airbus fleet, a fashionable design, fine food, good drinks and all of that at very reasonable prices. With Can Am and Neos Dromos, we’ll capture most of Europe in our network and have our own alliance.”

  “Hold me, Oli! Now!”

  “Matt!” I protested. “What are you doing?” he had taken his T-shirt off and stroked his belly,

  “It’s …” He grabbed his pants in the genital area and rubbed. I felt myself being drawn towards him. “It’s the way you think, Oli. You come up with plans that are so unique and so clever. You’re never afraid and I know that you will pull it off. You’re such a success! We’ll do it together. Touch me!”

  I looked at him snaking his body on the sofa, enticing me. It was more than tempting.

  “Oli, come here. I want you. Now!”

  End of part One

  Nicky Johnson

  How I got here?

  I was born in London, England and moved with my father’s job around the south of England as a child. In my gap year after school I decided to travel abroad. I actually intended to improve my French. But my best friend insisted on going to Germany. She probably liked the sound of the language. I ended up, linguistically seen, in the worst part of Germany – Bavaria. Learning the German equivalent to Scottish English. She decided not to come at the last moment. However, I enjoyed it and stayed for many years working my way up to Frankfurt in the center of Germany. I got used to their dialect and improved and studied until I finally got back to three o’clock tea-time in the UK. I took advantage of the courses offered by the Open University and started my MA in translation.

  My life now revolves around my family, working in my garden trying (unsuccessfully) to grow vegetables. I also run a translation business and tutor English as a foreign language. In these troubled times, politics and climate change concern me, but I try not to think too hard about them.

  This is my first translation of a book just as it is the author’s first written work. His style was a challenge as there were many expressions that are Berlin-specific. However, we had a lot of fun writing, discussing and re-reading and rewriting. I hope you enjoy our work.

  Oliver Rill

  I was born in the west part of Berlin, long before the wall fell.

  I never thought I would end up writing a book. After school, I qualified in business and worked all over Germany, in many different settings.

  Eventually, I took time off to spend three wonderful years in Greece, where I also started my writing career.

  Fiction and reality become blurred in my stories, producing my very own reality.

  What would it be like to write a book? This was this question that prompted me to try. I began with the words ‘Imagine that really was your airline’. And imagined how a guy with no background in air travel could end up as director of an airline.

  So just like the sim-game that I played with my friend Daniel, I started with a total of three planes.

  I didn’t study creative writing, nor did I attend any courses. I just did it.

  Enjoy the book and you can decide whether I should have!

  Acknowledgements

  Cover:

  We gratefully acknowledge the images changed and adapted from Freepik.com used in the cover illustrations.

  Thanks:

  Thanks to my friend Mary who took the time and had the patience of an angel in creating the covers for all four books in the series as they n
ow appear. She was also the one who gave me the courage to send the ideas which I had captured on paper out, into the world. Thank you!

  I owe a large debt of gratitude to my friend Nic, who encouraged and supported me with a thousand questions and much laughter, saving me from drowning in a sea of words.

  Thanks go too, to my friend Daniel, for introducing me to a virtual airline game. We sat through many nights together building and managing our airlines, which gave us the idea for the book. I don’t want to even think of the amount of time we spent playing. It was from his statement ‘Imagine that really was your airline’ that the idea sprung. The idea itched to be written down and just flowed from my pen.

  My appreciation to my English and drama teacher Jürgen Müller may not be forgotten. He pointed out a few things I wrote that I thought weren’t even mentioned. He was – and still is - a great inspiration.

  To my great surprise one of my bosses got to hear that I wrote this book and promoted it. When I learned that every single employee got a copy of my book, I was gobsmacked! I had no words. Thanks so much to Hertz and its leaders.

  And the most important: Nicky Johnson. Do you know those guys that whatever they put their hands on it turns into gold? Well, I’m not normally that kind of guy but in the case of Nicky, I became one. I found her accidentally and she agreed to work with me. Me, the inexperienced. She caught the humor that I expressed perfectly and transferred it, sensitively into English humor. We worked closely together especially due to my self-created words that aren’t to be found in any dictionary. Though it was an enormous amount of work, Nicky went through it, never got tired and as a result she presented an amazing epic. Nicky, you are just awesome. Thank you so much, I’m happy that I found you.

  I hope you have as much fun reading the story as I have had writing it.