Meet Peter Grooby – Products Software Development Manager for Airways International, based in our Christchurch offices. In this Q&A with Peter, he shares a bit about his role, why he loves working here, and some of his notable achievements.
What do you like most about working at Airways International?
We make good plans for what we want to achieve and then progress towards those goals. It’s great being part of a high-performing team.
What initially attracted you to this role, and organisation?
I’ve been at Airways for about 23 years, with the last five being with Airways International Ltd (AIL). During my time under the main Airways umbrella, I’d done several overseas assignments for AIL and when an opportunity came up to join the team full time, I was happy to start a new adventure working for AIL full-time.
What advice would you give someone wanting to start their career in the aviation industry?
Get to know and love TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms)! There is a huge amount of technology and procedures in aviation. So much so that we need to use shorthand when talking about things. That can take a bit of learning as to what people are referring to – but it is indicative of the huge depth of the field we work in and that there is always something new to learn.
What moment or achievement are you most proud of?
I was leading a team that did a huge amount of work without anyone noticing. We took the existing air traffic control system infrastructure and updated the hardware, operating systems and all its libraries. We did this one piece at a time so that the old and the new systems could keep talking to each other regardless of the configuration of old and new systems. We did this on the live ATC software over the course of several months without any outages or downtime.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
It’s quite varied. We have a lifestyle block that keeps us busy with our horses, goats and chickens. In the small amounts of spare time that gives me I do karate training, and I’ve got a small sideline making jewellery.
