Emanuela, you've been working in the Contracts and Risk Management Team at Albatros for 23 years now. How was your start back then?

It was a very exciting time. I had just arrived in Germany after studying law in Milan. I found Albatros by chance. I had applied for a job in the legal department at Delvag, however, I was still building my German language skills at the time. My application was then forwarded internally to Albatros, because coincidentally, the first Italian airline, Air One had been included in the Lufthansa Aviation Insurance Group Policy at that time. With my background, and as a native speaker, I was obviously the right person for the job. The marriage has lasted to this day.

Just three weeks after you started, you experienced an exceptional global situation on September 11, 2001, with direct consequences for your department. How did you feel about this extreme?

9/11 was surreal. We all gathered in the office that day in front of a computer with internet access and had to watch live as the second plane crashed. It was a situation that cannot be described in words.

Then it all became very hectic. There were lots of rumours and uncertainty. We didn't know whether a Lufthansa aircraft was involved and what the consequences would be. When I got home that evening, we were told that all LH employees on trial would be dismissed. Fortunately, this did not affect the Delvag Group.

In the weeks and months that followed, my job remained very exciting and challenging. The aviation insurers withdrew the so-called third-party legal liability war and allied peril risks cover at short notice. As this is a compulsory insurance, without a solution, this would have meant that all aircraft worldwide would have been grounded after a notice period of seven days. For us, this meant notifying all our insureds’ contractual partners about the cancellation of insurance cover. However not by e-mail, as it is standard today, but by telephone and fax. At the same time, negotiations were held with the German government to ensure that air traffic did not grind to a halt. This was an extremely complex situation, as the state guarantee was something completely new unheard-of. Fortunately, our specialists and experts were able to get the process rolling. It was impressive to see that we were able to make a real difference. We were all committed to a specific goal and worked on it in a focused manner. This intensive time really welded us together.

What has changed in contracts review and certification over the years since you started?

The biggest difference is the technology. Back then, certificates were printed on paper and sent by post or fax. From present perspective, that is unimaginable. Entire walls were stacked with envelopes. Gradually, over the course of time, we switched to serial letters sent out by email until we developed our current certificate system (VAS), which we are still using today. Thanks to this software system, our customers and their contractual partners receive the certificates automatically via email without having to get active themselves. This makes our work much easier and is also a service appreciated by our customers as well as by their contractual partners. Of course, there are also a few pain points, such as the structure of our address database, but altogether the technical development is great. Thanks to the digitalization, our work became much more sustainable and efficient and our customers profit by it too.

What does your typical working day look like?

Our core task is to review draft contracts of our insureds in many sorts of different areas. This includes, for example, aircraft leasing, aircraft sale and purchase, code share, maintenance, charter. We support customers in negotiations with their contractual partners from an insurance perspective. This also includes the support by drafting insurance clauses.

We help our customers to minimize risks and to find the best-practice solutions. Our focus is the analysis and review of contractual insurance requirements of them in relation to market conformity and compliance with existing insurance cover. In this context, it is important to note that we do not provide legal advice.

Our job requires a great deal of flexibility, a constant change of perspective and an ongoing exchange with our customers. It's challenging, but a lot of fun. The international environment, the wide variety of insureds and resulting fields of activity keep the job multi-faceted. Change of geopolitical situations, market capacities and new insurance products also influence the daily work and ensure that it remains exciting.
The time factor also plays a role - certificates are often time critical and the pressure can be very high. But we are a great team. We support each other, often discuss tricky contract clauses and take turns proofreading if a sentence in a contract takes up half a DIN A4 page. This reduces the pressure a lot.

Communicating witch customers is a big part of your job. Do you expect direct customer contact to decrease in the future due to digital developments?

Despite the digital media which supports me in my work, the core of my job is and remains the direct customer contact. That's the reason why I still love my job after so many years.

Many of our customers use more and more the video function of Teams, this empowers the communication even more. Albeit the technology may simplify some aspects even further but the importance of a personal exchange with the customer remains unchanged.

Albatros' parent company Delvag Versicherungs-AG celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. You have been on board for almost a quarter of that time. What do you wish for Delvag I Albatros in the next 100 years?

That we remain who we are. We are already a great company and have achieved a lot. If I have one wish, may we never lose focus on our customers and always act in their interests. There are many important changes and projects, but at our core we remain a service provider - we must never forget that.

About Emanuela Vinco
Emanuela Vinco has been working in contract an risk management since 2001 After completing her law studies in Milan, she moved to Cologne and has been working for the corporate broker Albatros - with a focus on aviation - ever since. Together with four long-standing and very experienced colleagues, she faces the challenges of customer-oriented service on a daily basis.

Interview: Nicholas Gorny, Corporate Communications Delvag Group