KLM's young in-country director loves his life
Gliding , Sergey Fomenko remembers it like it was yesterday: those feelings of soaring through the skies with only the air beneath him, and birds flying by as he did so; of having to trust himself completely, because when landing a glider you have only one chance. There’s no circling back for another approach, so you better make it good.
Sitting on the patio at Surprise cafe, Fomenko, 34, says he never forgets the lessons he picked up 20 years ago when he learned to fly gliders with a local aviation club, and he likely never will. He learned to trust himself completely. He learned to love flying. The lessons have served him well.
For the last eight years, Fomenko has worked as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ in-country sales manager, a position he accepted not long after turning 26, when he was already the marketing manager for Ukrainian International Airlines. The move made him the first native Ukrainian to head a major international airline here, and he remains one of the few Ukrainians still doing so.
“Originally I said ‘No,’” he tells me, his years of working with English-speaking Dutchmen obvious in his accent. After having a sip of Royal Club tonic water (Hr 18), he adds, “I was very happy with the job I had.”
Eventually, however, a Dutch head-hunter in Kyiv named Eric Lightenbelt told Fomenko what the position would involve: running the airline from the ground up, planning every last detail of KLM’s goals and flight plans in Ukraine, and making big decisions. He did lots of reading about the airline and found many things to his liking, from its long and proud history to its symbol, the swan, which reminded him of his days in a glider. His friends asked him: “Do you want to be a big fish in a small pool or a small fish in a big one?”
Having Fun
He still hadn’t made up his mind until he spoke with the airline’s regional sales manager, an aging Dutchman by the name of Guido van den Akker.
“He told me in 35 years with KLM, ‘I’m still having fun,’ and he said it smiling,” Fomenko says, smiling brightly himself. “For me it’s very important to have fun in life.”
The fun for Fomenko started, he says, in childhood. Like any kid, he dreamt of flying to the stars as a cosmonaut or into the sky as a pilot. He took those dreams with him into the air, piloting gliders all through his high school years. He even considered becoming an air force pilot after graduation, and though it wasn’t to be, he has no regrets. The hope is still there to one day get his pilot’s license: “Never say never,” he says.
Instead of becoming a pilot, Fomenko allowed himself to be “gently persuaded” by his father to enter Kyiv’s Civil Aviation Institute (KIGA). The elder Fomenko, who worked for 25 years as an engineer in the Research & Development bureau for the aircraft giant Antonov, thought his son would do better studying commercial transportation and economics.
Fomenko learned valuable airline industry skills at KIGA that, when coupled with an eight-month internship at Antonov in 1993, landed him a job at UIA right after graduation in 1994. It was a great opportunity – one of many he’s jumped at in his life – but he didn’t take the first offer they gave him, which would have meant starting in a ground-level position. Instead he was named manager of their fledgling charter service. Within two years he was heading their marketing department at a time when the industry was booming (he thinks it still is, at least in Ukraine), and then the chance to jump to KLM came.
“The airline industry is full of good and bad,” Fomenko says, reflecting on the challenges of his work. “The only constant is change. It’s like a breath of fresh air in business every day.”
As he talks about the amazing growth and failure rates of airlines in this country, Fomenko also speaks of the opportunities that have arisen from being part of such a large international organization, from such a young age. He speaks of the new merger and cooperation between KLM and Air France, the time pressures and all the different variables involved.
Many people have questioned his ability to run the company, often based on assumptions that someone so young can’t possibly solve problems or act like an adult. Yet over the years he’s shown countless customers and, equally important to him, his coworkers, how he’s pulled it off. His coworkers are like a family to him. The airline provides a traditional structure, which demands certain things of each member, and yet he says they are all still individuals and contribute in their own unique ways.
Opportunity Knocks
Throughout his life, Fomenko has seen many opportunities come his way, and he’s jumped at all of them. The most important opportunity that came his way, however, had nothing to do with ticket sales, flight plans, or securing aircraft landing rights.
Twelve years ago this past May, Fomenko ran into an acquaintance from university named Olga, a person he’d known for some time but with whom he had never really talked.
“I saw her and it was like lightning struck me,” he says before diving into his mixed green salad with salmon and shrimp (Hr 114). “I’d seen her many times, but now I really ‘saw’ her.
“That evening I called her and asked her what she was doing tomorrow (May 9). She said she didn’t know, and I said ‘Well, I know. You’ll be going to the Botanical Gardens.’ It was our first date.” They were married two years later and every year, on May 9, they still visit the Botanical Gardens. He says he’s still having the time of his life with her, too.
A Real Challenge
For someone working in the airline industry Fomenko isn’t as well-traveled as you might think, but he’s gone places in other ways. The KLM-Air France merger has made his work “family” closer. Trips out to the forest in summer to go camping with his real family (always to somewhere new, just like when he travels) keep him young. And recently, Fomenko has begun learning new lessons, taking up tennis.
“You should think and think quickly,” Fomenko says of the game, which he likes for its combination of brains and brawn.
“It’s not really a power game, such as when you make contact your opponent, but there are a few tricks you have to learn if you’re going to win,” he continues. “Plus you should run. You should really run.”
Having responsibility for an international airline is difficult work, even for a relaxed guy like Fomenko, but he says it’s nothing compared with raising a family.
“The most challenging thing is looking after the kids,” he says. “It’s the most honorable, demanding and scariest thing I’ve ever done. You have to protect them from everything and show them everything at the same time. I can’t wait until they’re old enough to enjoy everything I’m enjoying now.”
Surprise
3 Pyrohova,
235-7234.
Open daily from 11 a.m. till the last customer;
Tea/breakfast room open from 9 a.m. till the last customer.
English menu: Yes.
English-speaking staff: No.
