In 2016, Melanie Fleming was working as a manager for an organization that provided ground, air cargo, and fuel services for American Airlines. When ISS won that business, the Transitions manager approached Melanie about joining ISS. She said yes and accepted a role as Cabin Service Manager.
“That was a turning point in my career,” Melanie says. “I finally felt valued for the work that I was doing and saw potential for where I could go next.”
Melanie played a key role in standing up ISS operations at the American Airlines site in Seattle. Her business acumen and well-rounded knowledge of cabin cleaning processes helped her stand out to account leadership. As ISS began transitioning other American Airlines sites in the United States, the Transitions team invited Melanie along to lend her expertise.
“This was a new opportunity for me to step up—and I wasn’t going to waste it,” Melanie says. “I could see myself in a leadership role. Now, I just had to prove myself.”
Two years after joining ISS, Melanie’s initiative and growth mindset earned her a promotion into a District Manager role in Tampa, Florida. In this position, she was responsible for managing the American Airlines account at that site and starting up a new passenger services operation for another airline client. While Melanie would only be in this role eight months, she learned some valuable leadership lessons.
“Challenges help us grow,” she says. “We learn when we succeed, and we learn when we fail. It’s what we do next that matters most.”
In 2019, Melanie came back to Seattle as a District Manager for the Pacific Northwest. She continued demonstrating her commitment to continuous improvement and delivering excellence. When a Key Account Manager position in Aviation opened in 2022, she raised her hand. Now, she has 12 accounts under her.
“Every day, I strive to empower my teams to step up in their careers as I have,” Melanie says. “I believe in them and take great pride in seeing them succeed.”
