From the Cockpit with new Ameriflight CEO David Harvey

Ameriflight’s new president and chief executive sees himself as a problem solver and wants to help the cargo airline’s customers solve their problems in a “better, faster, more cost-effective, more efficient” way. Industry veteran David Harvey was named to the job on Sept. 30 after spending more than two decades at Southwest Airlines, ending his time there as chief sales officer. In that role, he led the airline’s sales organization across corporate, small- and medium-sized business. [caption id="attachment_57299287" align="alignright" width="480"] David Harvey was made CEO on Sept. 30. (Courtesy/Ameriflight)[/caption] Most recently, he was an adviser to airlines and other entities on issues including strategy, sales and tech initiatives. Ameriflight, which is based at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is the United States’ largest Part 135 cargo airline. It specializes in charter and integrator feeder operations and has a fleet of more than 150 aircraft, including: Embraer EMB 120Fs; Saab 340BFs; Fairchild SA-227Fs; Beechcraft B99s; and Beechcraft 1900s. Cargo Facts sat down with Harvey to discuss his background, his objectives and Ameriflight’s expansion opportunities. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Cargo Facts : How has your background prepared you for this new role as CEO? How have you previously led aviation businesses through periods of growth and transformation? David Harvey: When I started my last assignment at Southwest, Southwest operated on more of a direct-to-consumer model. The Southwest app didn’t even have a sales function. We took a team that called on small- to mid-size business, scaling it from about sixteen to about 350 employees. We built out everything from our account management and sales functions to the back office, analytics, customer success and distribution, moving a couple billion dollars of market share over to Southwest. Then, when I was at Wheels Up, we acquired Air Partner, the second-largest brokerage in the world. The Air Partner business, which included both their passenger and freight [operations], reported to me. One of the big wins there was having the opportunity to stand up some dedicated verticals, including one for time-critical cargo. It became known for its quick-turn prowess. Another solution cut across the business jet and cargo space. Think sports and university. You’ve got these sports teams — massive college football all the way down to lacrosse. Sometimes you have more gear than people. Having a business model tailored to that audience created a magnet to drive that demand. That vertical served Big Ten and Big Twelve college accounts. Cargo Facts : What are some of your near- and mid-term objectives and priorities as CEO? DH: Out of the gate, I’m doing a lot of listening and learning. Aviation — whether cargo or passenger — is a team sport. In the next few weeks, I’ll get out to our big bases and meet our pilots, mechanics and ground staff. There are also a few big conferences and customer-facing opportunities on the horizon, and I can’t wait to build those relationships. We’re not just moving stuff from point A to point B. We’re a solution-provider. We ask: how can we help you solve problems better, faster, more cost-effective, more efficient? That energizes me. We’re also looking ahead to peak season. We aim to increase aircraft availability to make sure we’re ready to capture high-yield demand. It’s like you’re playing Tetris every day, making sure all the resources are in the right place at the right time. Cargo Facts : What steps might you take to secure availability going into peak season? DH: There’s a constant balancing act with the integrator business and the charter business. The integrator business is more scheduled. You’re aiming at a target that’s very repeatable. Charter demand is more variable and can pop up all over the place. For the integrator business, you need to be routine, reliable, methodical. For the charter, you have to be much nimbler. It’s all about maintaining aircraft and pilot availability, and aligning that with maintenance resources. Cargo Facts : How do you balance those priorities in terms of aircraft availability? How much slack do you leave in your network for charter demand? DH: We allocate a certain percentage of the fleet to capture charter demand, and we constantly monitor demand signals as well as supply and aircraft availability signals. Do we have an aircraft reserve or space? Do we have a pilot reserve? We handle that in daily operations calls. For people like me who love to problem-solve, you get jazzed up. It’s like you’re playing Tetris every day, making sure all the resources are in the right place at the right time. Cargo Facts : What’s your assessment of the feeder and regional markets? What are the growth prospects? DH: The market backdrop is very constructive. Cargo demand is speeding up, and that’s good for the business. There are a lot of lanes that large jets just don’t make sense on. There's actually a little bit of a miniaturization of the volume, so less times you’re cubing out, like you're literally running out of physical space. Weights are decreasing, so you’re seeing some down-gauging, which I actually think plays to our strength because we have a full turboprop fleet. The economics, with fuel prices being what they are, also plays to our advantage, because we can be 20% to 40% more fuel-efficient than jet freighters. Cargo Facts : Along what lanes and into what freighter types can we expect to see Ameriflight develop? DH: Right now, everybody’s hyper-focused on peak season, but we’re in active conversations with major integrators about how we can support new lanes. We’re going to be spending a lot of time here in the fourth quarter trying to understand our customers’ 2027 needs. There will be new lanes that we’ll be excited to announce in the new year. When it comes to freighter types, there are no sacred cows. We’re keeping a close eye on different crewed eVTOL types. Meanwhile, we’re a little less focused on fully autonomous aircraft. We’re not chasing technology for technology’s sake. It’s got to solve a problem our customers are facing and be operationally durable. But sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing is not a good answer either. We continue to look at various partnership opportunities. As we go into 2027, we want meet the needs of the customer. We aim to protect and expand the core while looking at new customer segments and potentially adopting new members of our fleet to support that. Cargo Facts Symposium 2026, the premier event for the freighter aircraft and air cargo industries, will take place in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 21-23. Find out more and register here .

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