Listen in as James Pozzi talks to Mohammad Taher—aka Mo T The Airport Guy—who has amassed more than 1 million social media followers by promoting the aviation industry and careers within the sector.
James Pozzi:
Welcome to the MRO podcast. I'm James Pozzi, MRO editor for the EMEA Region. We are absolutely delighted to have with us Mohammed Taher, known online as Mo T the airport guy. Over the past few years, Mo has amassed more than a million followers across his social media channels. Think TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Some really engaging and educational videos about the aviation industry. Welcome and delighted to have you here.
Mo T:
Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait for this conversation. I'm really excited for this.
James Pozzi:
Yeah, no, brilliant. Let's get started then. Kind of your background in aviation, I guess. So maybe let's look at your early years, your interest in aviation, how that formed and how it led to, I guess, your eventual career in aviation.
Mo T:
Yeah, absolutely. I think one thing about me is ever since I can remember, I've just been fascinated by how things work. I'm always curious to figure out what it is that makes things do what they do, but the one area in my life that I just never could get my head around how possibly this is even possible is when I used to look up at the sky and I used to see a chunk of metal just cruising above my head. I'm like, how is that? How is that even possible? And that curiosity just never left. That curiosity genuinely never left. Initially, it made me say, I want to be a pilot. And then my brother-in-law pulled me to one side. He's like, look, you sure you want to do that? I'm like, yeah, why not? Well, you're basically a taxi driver for the sky.
I know that will offend a lot of people. That's his words, not mine. But it did put me off being a pilot. So I was like, okay, well I love physics, I love maths. What can I do possibly? And he was like, well, let me see what I can do. He actually introduced me to a company called Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group up near Cambridge. I was lucky enough to get a one day tour behind the scenes where I was able to see the place where they designed aircraft changes, where they actually managed to build all these machines, CNC machines, massive hangars, maintenance, et cetera. And then I got taken up the runway. So imagine in half a day I got to explore basically how to design, build and fly a plane all in one spot. And when I tell you my jaw was basically scraping the ground that whole day, I was like, yeah, I'm all in.
James Pozzi:
So let's maybe look at your early career then. So you got into engineering on the maintenance side and you worked at Heathrow for a while. What can you tell us about that kind of jump into aviation as a career?
Mo T:
Yeah, so walking out on that day at Marshall Aerospace, I knew one thing and one thing only: if I was going to set a trajectory, it was something to do with aviation and something to do with engineering. So I looked online and aerospace engineering at uni just felt like the right thing to do. So I was an aerospace engineering degree, done at Brunel University just west of London, and during my placement year, so two years in the degree, then one year out in industry, I applied to Lufthansa Technik. So Lufthansa Technik is an MRO facility where they do landing gear, maintenance and overhaul. So before I even joined Heathrow, my first ever taste of the aviation sector was straight into an MRO facility. And when I would walk around this site, you look at these massive wooden crates that are getting wheeled into this facility. They open up a crate and you see this greasy, dirty landing gear that's been used and I'd like to say the word used and abused, but I mean they get used, right?
They're hard. All right. These things have taken that brute force of landings day in day out and these things have been going for about eight to 10 years at this point. And now they get shipped into this facility and I watch these people ripping these landing gears apart into individual components. We strip away the paint, then they get each inspected, every single one of them gets checked. You get nondestructive testing where they’re literally dipping these massive metal pieces into kerosene, then taking them out, looking at them in UV light. If there's anything wrong with them, then they get taken to the CNC, they get taken to plating. We're adding nickel and chrome, and I'm just watching this whole operation right before my eyes and my role was walk around this facility and figure out what processes, what things are happening that we can make more efficient.
So I was within the lean continuous improvement department and I was walking around this facility going, what can I do here that makes this place more efficient? And over the course of a year, I designed new softwares that I co-created with the IT teams to make the store departments, when a technician is requesting a part, it makes that more efficient. Then I went on to redesigning jigs that hold landing gears. I redesigned the plating shop to understand how can we make the process more efficient. I was just like a kid in the candy store and it really, really was that first taste of what that engineering aviation's all about. But while I was doing that five days a week in Lufthansa, on the Saturday and Sunday, I was selling sofas at IKEA. And the reason why I had to sell sofas at IKEA at the same time is because as much as I loved being in the MRO facility, I loved people and I'm a people person, so I need to talk to normal people, but it's not just technical engineering stuff.
I wanted to interact with the general public. So what that taught me really is when it came to graduating and finding a full-time job, I knew I wanted technical, but I also wanted a people focused environment. And that's when I was scrolling through the internet actually, I was in a careers fair and I bumped into a guy who told me, have you ever considered joining the airport? The airport is a place where it's a melting pot of people and an engineering team that looks after all the engineering at the airport. And my heart lit up and I was like, yo, this sounds like me, man. It's people. It's technical. I put my foot forward. I applied. There was 1,500 people that applied for the role, four spots, and I was lucky enough to get one for the future leaders engineering grad program, and the rest was history. Joining Heathrow was like a dream come true, man for someone who grew up in West London, how literally a kid in a candy shop.
James Pozzi:
How long were you out at Heathrow for and what maybe were some of the interesting things you did?
Mo T:
Heathrow Airport splits, really in the time I was there, splits into two halves. You had the graduate scheme. The graduate scheme was an every six months rotational program where I went from six months in the baggage system, looking after engineering there to six months out in the middle of the night on the runways, looking after the light maintenance, then looking at the terminal buildings, then going up the control tower, then going into tunnels underground to look after the train systems, then looking after the water systems, then looking after the IT systems. I went from one department to another, deep diving into all these various engineering roles, and man, I was blown away. All this time, up until that point, all I'd ever focused on when it came to aviation was the actual airplane itself. To not get shown how much goes into not even just the aircraft.
The interesting thing about my career is ever since I left Lufthansa, I've never actually looked after the airplane. I've always looked after the airport and the infrastructure and the air traffic control and the stuff that facilitates the airplane, but not the airplane itself. And that's when I was like, whoa, this thing is huge. And it made me realize it was the tip of the iceberg is the plane, but the rest of the iceberg is the infrastructure in the airport and that sort. So some of the interesting things for me were being out in the runway at three in the morning, changing light fittings, making sure that all the lights work, making sure that the rubber that gets plastered all over those lights is removed and is maintained, is making sure the glass on those lenses isn’t damaged so that the lighting output can be nice and strong.
Looking after the baggage system, thinking about the orientation of the bags and actually if bags are oriented incorrectly then it creates bottlenecks because they can't go through the x-ray machines. And if you can't go through the x-ray machines and it keeps stopping because the bag’s stood up instead of lying down how then that can have a knock on effect all the way back to checking, go down checking. I realized that this whole machine of the airport and the airplane and the runway and the control tower and the people and the trains, there's a domino effect. Everything is connected to everything.
James Pozzi:
Oh yeah, yeah. It's all one ecosystem that is working with each other and yeah, you're right. When something is out of kilter or goes wrong, the whole thing slows down. Absolutely. So let's look at maybe your more recent activity. So social media, as I said, you've amassed over a million followers over multiple platforms, really interesting videos you've done, and very diverse as well, which I guess in terms of topics, which I guess reflects in a way mirrors your experience in the industry for someone, a young guy, you've done a lot of things in the industry already. So yeah, maybe just getting started then on that. So how did you make that jump into social media and where did you see the opportunity there to, I guess, promote aviation and have this Mo T The Airport Guy brand?
Mo T:
So I'll tell you the organic story and the truth. So you can see how passionate I am about this stuff. I'm a kid in a candy store. I'm going around. I'm learning all this amazing stuff. One day I went home and I was showing my auntie. Now my auntie worked at the time she worked for Google. Then she went on to work for Meta. She's into cybersecurity. She's super, super successful in that space, and I've shown all these pictures of just the baggage system and runaway and this and that, and she sees this. I'm literally overflowing passion. She's like, why don't you share this stuff? I was like, really? Who's actually going to care?
She's like, no, just share it. This is interesting. Clearly you love it, share it. So I was like, you know what? Fine. So I set up this page called Motivate. My nickname's Moti, I want to be a motivational speaker, Motivate. That was whatever. And I just started to stick it out. I think the first post I put up was, ‘Hey, I'm an engineer at the airport. I'm just going to share my journey and anything that I learned that I think is cool, I'm just going to share it with you.’ And that was it. That's my whole philosophy to this date. I'm just very curious and I love learning. So you can imagine when I'm going from the baggage systems to the runaway to this, to that, I'm pulling my phone out and I guess this is where I'm really lucky because my skillsets kind of fall into each other very, very well.
When I was at college, I started an engineering society and yeah, engineering society is where I used to take really complex topics and simplify them for the students. So now what ended up happening is while I'm walking around the airport, I'm learning about these really complicated as systems. I pull my phone out of my pocket and I make these really simple 40 second videos about the things that I'm learning. So I take really complex topics and I make them really simple and I know how to edit videos because when I was a kid, I was the annoying one with a phone in your face making videos on holiday. I was that guy making the holiday videos. Now I'm thinking about my skills, making holiday videos, bringing them into the airport, making videos, and then just sharing them with the world. And I just done that once, twice, three times.
I've done it for a week, a month, a year, two years, three years. I just kept doing it. Then the rise of TikTok came and I started putting stuff on TikTok, making more videos, making them more engaging. I learned how the algorithm works just completely organically, and I just started making these videos and before I knew it, they started to go viral. One popped up, two popped off million, this one got 1 million, this one got 2 million, 5 million, 13 million. I'm like, whoa, this is a lot. Comments flooding in, messages flooding in, people saying, ‘Hey, help me out. I want to get a job in aviation. I dunno, they do this. How do I do that? What job do you have? What degree do you get?’ I'd wake up at six in the morning and answer all these questions with these people. One day I was walking through the terminal buildings and I remember a young person with a hi-vis on.
As I'm walking through tunnel, they look up at me and they go, ‘Are you Mo T? I work for Heathrow now.’ I'm like, is it? What do you do? He's like, ‘Oh, hold on. Before I tell you what I do, I wouldn't be doing this job if it wasn't for you.’ They're like, ‘Well, I saw your videos and I loved them, and I applied and I got the job.’ I go, ‘What? Serious?’ Once I was on a train, literally I was jumping off the train in central London, and this guy walks up at me and he goes, ‘Hold on. You are that guy. You're the guy with videos on the airport video too. You are the airport guy.’
James Pozzi:
Yeah. Yeah. That's a huge reach as well. And you mentioned inspiring people into careers. What are some of the things you're doing around that? Because I know you did a really interesting video, I thought, looking at the fast way to become a mechanic, that was really interesting, really broke down that process really well, I thought. But yeah, it seems like something you are quite passionate about attracting people into careers in aviation. What are some of the things I guess you are doing to really drive those initiatives?
Mo T:
So it's a three step process if you want to get people into the aviation sector. Step one is you have to plant that seed and gain that interest, inspire them to want to be a part of this industry, right? Then you have to actually engage them and you have to actually give them something to do and then you have to retain them. That's what the qualification or something, and you get their foot in the door. So attraction is step one, engagement is step two, and then the last one is actually retention and getting them in the role. So for me, a lot of the work that I do is around the attract side. I'm trying to get more young people interested in the first place. I'll give you a quick stat. When I was sat at Heathrow Airport before I left, I was sat in a room full of all of the apprentices in the graduate scheme, all the apprentices, all the interns, all the grads all sat in one room.
I said, ‘Who here decided they want to join Heathrow Airport because of one of my videos?’ 53% of them put their hand up. So 53% of all the young people at Heathrow Airport going through their apprenticeship program, the graduate program, said it was your videos that made me want to come and work here. So what I realized is that at the same time, the government's talking about skills crisis, not enough young people in the sector, et cetera, and I realized that nobody's using social media, nobody's using YouTube, TikTok, Instagram as a means of getting the young people in. So what I realized, I developed this process, this philosophy where if we can build a funnel from social media into programs and then from those programs into the workplace, we can build a sustainable funnel of talent. You use the TikTok and Instagram videos for reach. At the end of those videos, you say, if you thought this was interesting, well guess what?
I made a full YouTube video breakdown of this. Come and watch the YouTube video. They go and watch the YouTube video. Now in the YouTube video, you'll break down specifically what it is that they have to do and where they can go to learn more. So go join Fantasy Wings, for example. Every month program you come in, you get to learn, you get to meet people. Then once you're in Fantasy Wings, then it's like, okay, well if you actually want to do this, go and get this qualification. Actually, here's work experience. Here's an opportunity for you to really do stuff. At the end of each YouTube video, there's always a link to say, you actually want to get a job in this industry. Click link.
So what I'm building here is I'm building these talent pipelines and these funnels, and what happened was that the Department for Transport, they saw the work that I was doing and they said, you know what? There's a global aviation skills crisis in case specifically for the mechanics, for example, and the rest. You love the work you're doing so much. We want you to become an aviation ambassador for the government. So that's when I was like, okay, this is serious. There's a real need in the world. I actually decided I quit my job at the airport as an engineer to try and solve the global aviation skills crisis. Really to be able to build those talent pipelines and funnels. Key part is you said that video MRO video, how do you come from an aircraft maintenance engineer? There's one specific comment on that video that really shows the reason why this is so important. There's a comment on that video. The first comment I think is one that got the most likes was ‘Mo, I've been searching for this sort of information on the internet for months and I haven't been able to find it. This 14 minute video, I think it was 17 minute video, just summarized everything that I need to know.’ So simply what you realize is that this information is buried on page 548 of a document that nobody reads. Pathways aren't visible when hidden in the weeds, and we're expecting young people just to find them and figure it out.
James Pozzi:
Yeah, you're right, and from what I've seen over the years, especially young people, there is certainly not a lack of interest in aviation. Quite the opposite, I think, but you are right. Sometimes these pathways are so obscure. There seems to be a bit of a shortfall there. Definitely, I think. Okay, well, really, really interesting. Just before we go, unfortunately, we're coming to the end. I think we could easily go on for another hour or so, but just about the future, Mo. Obviously you cover a lot of, as I said, diverse topics on your channel. I was watching something earlier, for example, with the Virgin SAF London to New York flight, a very interesting part of the future of aviation. But from your perspective as an aviation fanatic, I think it's fair to say, what are you really excited about in terms of the future of the industry and some of the developments that are going to happen over the next 5-10 years? What are you thinking?
Mo T:
I think 5-10 years is a timescale that I could answer a question for, but I would love to actually maybe push that even further and give you a longer view. I think I'll be here, hopefully I could if I'm alive. The part that I'm really excited for is the bit that comes after the 10 years, right? What I'm talking about here is what is the next thing that is completely different to what we've seen right now in terms of aviation? Aviation has coming at a plateau for a long time now. Finally, there's something on the horizon, and for me that's eVTOL and sort of electrification of vertical takeoff flight and being able to create these hops from one place to another, and I think if we exist in a world where actually that becomes really accessible and becomes cheaper and it becomes sustainable and it becomes something that becomes a part of our everyday life, I think that transition of getting the public to understand, number one, the safety, number two, the reliability, number two, the benefits, the use cases, how society at large can change, how we can get people closer to medical facilities, et cetera. How a society as we know it could be completely revolutionized because of the introduction of this new technology of an aircraft that can land like a helicopter, that fly like an airplane that is going to introduce a whole new world of aviation.
And I think that world needs to proactively be communicated rather than reactively. I think we do this thing where we're always on the back foot in terms of telling our story, and actually what I'm really excited for is as we see more eVTOL aircraft flying through our skies, actually being able to proactively showcase to the public look at what this could be used for. And actually rather than, let me tell you what we can use this for. Why don't you tell me what you would use it for? Why don’t we get the public to shape how we utilize these aircraft and then we can actually build mechanisms that we can allow these to be used and accessed in a sustainable, efficient, and cost effective, affordable way. I think that is what I'm really excited about. Looking back, I've watched Vertical Aerospace do their UK launch of one of their tests for one of their aircraft. Soon I'll be going to visit Joby as well to watch them manufacture their aircraft as well. I think we are on the cusp of a very, very cool next chapter of aviation, and it's one to watch and it's one that I would love to help tell the story for.
James Pozzi:
Excellent. Okay. Well, Mo, thank you so much. Some really fascinating insights there and some thoughts on several topic areas. As I said, it's unfortunate we don't have more time because we could definitely continue this for another hour or so, I think. But yeah, once again, thank you so much for joining us today and best of luck with everything. Thank you so much. Brilliant. Okay, well don't miss the next episode by subscribing to the MRO Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. And one last request. If you are listening on Apple Podcasts and want to support this podcast, please leave us a star rating or write a review. Thank you.
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