Former Carnival Australia Chief Commercial Officer Kathryn Robertson has jumped ship to aviation to take up a new role as Qantas Executive General Manager Global Sales & Distribution to lead the national carrier’s international and domestic sales teams.
Ms Roberston told Karryon that she anticipates solidifying and reinvigorating relationships with travel partners in her new role at Qantas.
“My role will be to strengthen those relationships, both with key corporate and trade partners, and elevate the Qantas business,” she said
“I already have good relationships with the trade from my previous roles in cruise and at Air New Zealand, so I’m looking forward to continuing those and resetting some of those relationships between Qantas and the Australian trade.
“I’m aware there have been some setbacks in recent years, but l look forward to building on my existing relationships in a new role.”
Bringing a wealth of aviation experience
The highly experienced aviation sales and marketing executive brings more than 30 years of industry expertise to the role, including ground-up experience across all facets of the airline sector and proven success leading a business with an award-winning corporate reputation.
She will also work closely with Qantas Regional General Managers in overseas markets.
Ms Robertson joined Carnival Australia in the newly created role of CCO in November 2022 following more than 15 years at Air New Zealand where she was most recently the Regional Ground General Manager of Sales in Australia.
At Carnival Australia, she was responsible for kickstarting global campaigns and sales activity across nine cruise brands.
Ms Robertson said she is thrilled to take on her new role with the national carrier.
“There’s something about airlines that sort of gets in your blood, so I’m delighted to be going back to the airline world and particularly excited to join such an iconic Australian brand.”
Qantas goals for 2024
Ms Robertson joins as the Group reported an interim FY24 result of AUD$1.25 billion under the leadership of new CEO Vanessa Hudson, who took the reins in September 2023.
At the half-year FY24 result announcement, Ms Hudson said: “We know that millions of Australians rely on us and we’ve heard their feedback loud and clear.”
“There’s a lot of work happening to lift our service levels and the early signs are really positive. Our customer satisfaction scores have bounced back strongly since December and we have more service and product improvements in the pipeline.”
Ms Robertson is set to join the Qantas executive team in the coming weeks with the exact date to be confirmed as she wraps up at Carnival Australia.
Find out more at qantas.com
