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Linus Bauer literally taught himself how to hear through his early teenage years. He had to repeat two years of secondary school and was told on many occasions that his disability would render employment opportunities limited at best.
And so when it is put to him that launching an aviation advisory business at the very height of the coronavirus was a monumental challenge, the 34-year-old almost laughs as he says: “The experience has shaped me to fight for everything, to prove to people that anything is possible and to make people believe in the impossible.”
According to IATA, the impact of Covid-19 on the MENA region’s aviation sector has placed close to two million jobs and $115 billion in GDP at risk, as airlines in the Middle East lost at least $7.1bn in profits in 2020, representing an average loss of $68.5 per passenger.
And yet, Bauer Aviation Advisory is flourishing since it was formed back in May last year and recently announced that Dubai was to be the home of its global headquarters.
“I have been following all the milestones I wanted to follow,” Bauer told Arabian Business about the latest landmark achievement.
Resilience has been a key lesson over what has been a turbulent 12 months or so for everyone, however, it is something Bauer learned almost from the moment he was born.
Linus Bauer with Laila Hareb Almheiri, CEO of Alive group
Born profoundly deaf in 1986 in Bonn, Germany, it meant his early years were spent in complete silence as he learned how to lip-read and carried with him constantly his trusted pen and paper.
“I was always participating in the normal life, even if I didn’t hear or speak. I was in a normal school and I received the support of people sitting next to me in finding out what the teacher was saying, or I was sitting in the front table to read from the lips,” he said.
“A pen and paper were two things which accompanied me everywhere, even to the playground when I would play football, I had to take my pen and paper because some people, they are not speaking very loud or clear so it was very challenging for me to apply my lip-reading, so I was relying more with the paper and the pen to communicate with people,” he added.
At the age of 13 he was offered a lifeline in the shape of cochlear implants – a surgically implanted neuroprosthetic device providing a person with moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss a modified sense of sound.
However, following tests it was decided that he was only suitable for just one implant. And despite restoring 50 percent of his hearing, his challenge was only really just beginning. Bauer revealed it was like having an empty waste basket that had to be filled by the millions and millions of sounds that up until that point had been alien to him.
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Bauer holds a Master of Science in Air Transport Management at the City University in London
He explained: “I was used to the silence for the first 13 years of my life and then, all of a sudden, I was having to deal with actual sound. I couldn’t recognise sounds because I hadn’t heard them before.
“It was like a baby process. I was living like a baby at the time, picking up the sound and processing it in my brain, transforming the sound into pictures.”
Teenage years are tough enough, but for Bauer he was suddenly thrust into a world full of noise, where his learning was only really beginning.
“It was a big challenge, dealing with school and, at the same time there was very intensive training. I was basically starting to learn English at the age of 18, not at the age of 10 or 11,” he said.
“I had two additional years in the high school at the end of the day, not because I’m stupid, but because of the capacity of my body, the capacity of my brain,” he added.
Sadly others did not agree. “Myself and my parents, we heard from teachers, we heard from doctors and specialists, experts, that I cannot lead a normal life; that my parents should be prepared for having somebody just doing simple jobs,” said Bauer. “Even the teacher told me I would not be capable of studying to go to university.”
Not for the first time, he set out to prove the doubters wrong and headed off to university at EBC in Berlin where he studied tourism and events management, although he soon discovered this wasn’t for him. And while his dream of being a pilot was dashed because of his disability, Bauer quickly implemented ‘Plan B’, studying aviation management in Germany for three years, before going on to study international economics and global affairs in the US.
Following his time in the US and Switzerland, he went on to study a Master of Science in Air Transport Management at the City University in London.
And although he was unable to be at the helm of the aeroplane, Bauer has nonetheless been at the forefront of driving the industry forward, working for Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines, amongst others. He also operated as a consultant for four years, working in North Africa, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, before taking the plunge and starting his own business last year.
He said: “We always say wherever there is a crisis, it will lead to new opportunities. At the end of the day it was a very good time to set up the company because we had a very strong focus on setting up. We had no distractions from other sides because everything was sleeping at that time, from May to maybe October.
“But then things started moving, especially in the Middle East, more people are coming to Dubai, people are keen to travel and the restrictions have been easing up from other countries making travel easier.”
Bauer was awarded with the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in Air Transport Management, personally presented by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum in 2019
The firm, which has officers in Germany and Switzerland, comprises 25 consultants with 15 years’ experience on average from 12 nationalities including Emirati, British, American, Australian and German.
Following the circulation of vaccines, borders reopening and airlines’ ability to grow their cargo businesses, BAA anticipates the commercial aviation industry will rebuild in 2021 ahead of an industry recovery in 2022-2023 before emerging stronger than pre-crisis levels from 2024.
Bauer, who was awarded with the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in Air Transport Management, personally presented by HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum in Dubai, in 2019, is certainly ready for whatever challenge the industry may throw up between now and then.
He said: “It is possible to achieve the impossible, with your determination, with your resilience, with your focus on the target in your personal or your business life.”
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