Face to Face: Eric Jelinek, Qantas Airways

Travel Daily speaks to Eric Jelinek, the new regional general manager UK & Ireland at Qantas Airways on his plans; its business split and challenges ahead. 

Congratulations on your new role, what are you looking forward to?

Firstly I have enjoyed being based in the capital for the London 2012 Olympics. There’s undoubtedly been a fantastic atmosphere in the city over this period and it has been a great opportunity to showcase London to the world.

From a work perspective, I am really looking forward to working with the passionate and enthusiastic team over here to promote our multi award winning double daily A380 services to Australia. Having originally started my career with British Airways, it is also a great opportunity to reconnect with BA and work with them on the multi brand selling concept. I am also looking forward to working with the Tourism Australia team continuing to highlight Australia as a unique and desirable destination to the UK and Irish markets and promote Qantas as THE premium airline with which to travel.

What plans are currently in place for Qantas in the UK market?

One of our most exciting developments in this region is our association with the British and Irish lions tour to Australia in 2013. Australia is already buzzing in anticipation of this tour, and we are thrilled to be the official airline.

From a product perspective, having a double daily A380 service from London to Sydney and Melbourne is very exciting. We have dedicated crews on our A380’s, which have been hand-picked to ensure we deliver outstanding customer service, to outline an example of this premium on-board service, in International Business and First class passengers have access to our Sommeliers in the Sky, cabin crew who have been exhaustively trained in all aspects of wine service. We also continue to work with Qantas Consulting Chef Neil Perry to provide a new benchmark in in-flight dining.

Flying up here last week from Sydney, I experienced the what I would consider to be the perfect flight. The service was faultless, the food was outstanding and I arrived here feeling very proud and confident of what we can offer the market here in this region.

Finally we are excited to have recently announced the appointment of Martin Grant as the leading Australian designer to develop the new Qantas uniform. We look forward to working with Martin and aim to have our international and domestic cabin crew and ground staff sporting the new design in 2014.

You have joined as Qantas splits its international and domestic businesses. What changes will the UK see, if any?

It is no secret that whilst the Qantas Group is still very profitable our international network, is faring less well in the current climate. The reason we have restructured the business into two separate business units, Domestic and International, is to ensure there is a dedicated team focused and accountable for the International business.

Here in the UK it will mean that we will have much stronger support from Australia in assisting our commercial efforts, which is a very positive thing. We will still be responsible for selling our domestic network, so there will be no change in our approach there.

What challenges do you face?

The APD has certainly impacted on Qantas, the tax has added approximately GBP400 to the total cost of a family of four travelling to Australia and as our key destination from the UK, we are at a disadvantage of these APD bandings. More price sensitive customers may opt to board their long-haul service from the Continent to avoid the APD from the UK but this may not always turn out to be much cheaper and certainly it is far less convenient.

The challenge that Australia as a destination currently faces is more related to currency exchange and the decline in the value of the pound vs the Australian dollar – this is certainly impacting on overall UK arrivals as there is a perceived drop in value as a destination.