Michael Rankin Recognized at Ontario International Airport

Knowing the ins and outs of the airport comes with the job for Rankin. At some point every shift, someone hops on his bus with a question that has nothing to do with the route. Usually it’s, ”Which airline is in which terminal?”

Rankin spent 30 years as a tour bus driver before joining ONT, and he says great customer service comes first, no matter the route.

“Talking to people is the best. It’s fun,” he said with a warm smile.

Rankin grew up helping out at his family’s business, and even then, he says, it was never about the sale. He wanted to get to know his customers, a philosophy that he has carried through his entire career.

“It’s about making a connection first,” he said. “They’re in a very stressful moment and they cannot miss their flight. I naturally get them to smile.“

A little humor and sarcasm usually does the trick, breaking the tension almost instantly. More often than not, passengers walk away more than pleased with the ride.

He remembers one day when a burly older man and his wife stepped off the bus and pulled him in for a hug.

“Not a side hug. He brought me in,” Rankin recalled. “He told me, ‘Thanks, you’re good at what you do.’”

Another traveler echoed the sentiment on a different day, and a passenger who flies often for business told him: “I’ve been doing this for 10 years and never seen a guy like you.“

Those reactions, Rankin said, confirm he’s doing something right.

His shift usually starts at 3 a.m., and even before the first flights land, he’s busy shuttling rental car customers and employees arriving for work. Things pick up around 6 a.m. when flights start touching down.

Rankin said he and his colleagues keep tabs on each other’s locations to make sure passengers always get the smoothest ride possible.

He also stays on top of real-time flight delays and cancellations, since those changes ripple straight into his route.

When a flight gets canceled, “I can adjust my time on the route so I can help,” Rankin said. “If I know there’s a lot of people at one terminal, I can be there faster.“

In a way, Rankin doubles as an information booth on wheels. Passengers are constantly asking which airline flies out of which terminal, and not a day goes by that he doesn’t spot someone sprinting to make it to Terminal 4.

When people board his bus, Rankin has a go-to line: if your gate starts with 200, you’re headed to Terminal 2; if it starts with 400, it’s Terminal 4.

After five years on these routes, Rankin’s No. 1 piece of advice for travelers is simple: give yourself more time.

Factor in time to find parking, time to wait for and board the bus and time to clear security, he said. Those minutes add up fast once you’re running behind.

“They don’t allow enough time for things to go wrong,” he said. “You need every minute of those two hours. Every single minute.”

– Original Article by Liset Marquez can be found here.