Get to know our people: Aavo Kuus

Aavo Kuus is a Sales Manager at Magnetic MRO. He shares some insights about his career, personal life, and advice to youngsters.

• Why aviation at all? How did you end up working in aviation? How has the journey been so far?

I started as a Sales Manager with Magnetic MRO 3 years ago, and it wasn’t exactly a conscious choice at first, but it grew on me quickly and I was impressed by its success and story. I’ve been in the sales game my whole career and worked for different companies and industries locally and internationally outside Estonia. 

The main reason for choosing Magnetic MRO was its global reach and doing business without any geographical limitations. Aviation is constantly changing, and continuous development and opportunities on the market is the key for me.   

If you look back over the past two years, name another industry that has been almost stopped and now rebooted again. I can’t see myself with the same routine over and over, but need to feel strong currents and waves in the water, not a still pond in the backyard.

It’s been a great experience and yet so much more to achieve and accomplish.

• Please describe your current job. What are the main challenges and biggest professional wins?

In a few words, my everyday task is to bring aircrafts to Tallinn into our hangars for maintenance and repairs or painting. Whether it’s a simple 1-day a-check or 6-week heavy maintenance, no job is too small or too big for Magnetic MRO. 

In a way, we are a local company as our maintenance hangars are in Tallinn, but the business itself is global, and almost all our customers are from outside Estonia. The market is recovering, people will continue flying, and airlines need trustworthy maintenance partners. 

Not just about a hangar to perform maintenance, but there’s a demand for a total technical care partner. Our role is to listen, advise and perform any service customer needs – maintenance, interior solutions, engine repairs, spare parts pool, painting, or even aircraft sales and lease, just to name a few. 

The biggest challenges today are the factors we can’t control – closing borders/restrictions, making traveling experience a living nightmare, and other virus outbreaks. All this makes our customers cautious, and any planned activities may change overnight.

Nevertheless, Magnetic MRO has been lucky enough to maintain our maintenance capacity and actually increase it. As well as adding new customers to the portfolio at times where it almost looks impossible. 

This is a huge gratitude to our maintenance teams and people in the back office – engineers and mechanics with maintenance planners in the front line for the quality work they provide. This is the real reason our customers are with us and new ones are stepping on board.

• What are your biggest professional goals? Which one is the most challenging and why?

I’m very competitive and tend to set high goals. I always try to perform better with every next project or target that I have set, whether it’s more efficiently managed, less time spent or financially more feasible and beneficial to both parties. I’m driven both by process and results. 

In aviation, you can’t do it all alone. You need a team around you that helps you get to that destination. Aircraft maintenance is a “team sport”, and going solo would be a suicide mission. 

There are hundreds of people working on aircraft in our hangars, and you are liable for the workload to be provided. I’d love to have customers from all over the world, from every continent, making a name for Magnetic MRO. Support them onsite or any location in the World a way that it’s a no-brainer for them where to go-to and partner up with us. Every time they hear the name Magnetic MRO, it brings a smile to their faces. 

• Where can we find you during your spare time?

What is spare time? 😃 All jokes aside, today, there’s nothing more important for me than family and kids. I have a 2-month and a 2-year old, and spending time with them is just priceless. I used to put career as a priority, don’t get me wrong, it’s very important still now, but with children, your priorities and routines change. I’m sure I speak for other parents in this sense, too, and it’s just the way it is. 

And if I squeeze in that extra hour in the city, you can find me at any local hole-in-the-wall record stores digging some Philly soul or anything that pumps me up that moment.

• What is your advice to youngsters and students?

Wish I had a crystal ball to see which way to go or what to do and show guidance. But there are no shortcuts. I go by a very simple rule and belief – hard work pays off. 

Whatever you choose to learn, or whatever position you take in your career, as long as you do it with passion and heart, you will succeed. Be curious, dream big and never lower your goals. Aim high and multiply. 

You may doubt what if you won’t make it or reach these goals. My advice is – why don’t you turn this around and think, what if you will.