Friday, 24 October 2014: Fiji Airways, Fiji’s National Airline, has expanded and refreshed its global Sales and Marketing set-up through appointments of new Regional General Managers in key markets and boosting focus on digital marketing and sales capabilities.
Along with new Regional General Manager for North America Olaf Kaelert, Fiji Airways has also appointed Wenchi Wang its new Regional General Manager for Asia. Wang is a 16-year industry veteran, joining Fiji Airways from Air France-KLM, where she was most recently Regional Manager for Hong Kong and Macau.

The Fiji & Pacific Islands Sales operations also received a new Head, with the airline’s former Senior Manager for Schedules & Planning, Robert Rounds appointed as Regional General Manager. Former manager at its Suva Sales Office, Sharon Jang, is now the new Manager Reservations. She will be responsible for the new Reservations Centre for Fiji Airways located in Suva City, with a key focus on enhanced and efficient service delivery to the airline’s customers. Christopher Dalton, formerly Fiji Airways’ Manager for Samoa has returned home to take up the new position of Manager Fiji, based in Suva, and is responsible for all Fiji sales teams and functions. Stefan Keil is now Acting Manager Samoa. Andrew Stanbury (Australia) and Shannon Currie (New Zealand) continue to lead the regional sales teams in their respective countries.

All the regional sales managers report directly to the Executive Manager Sales and Marketing, Otto Gergye. Various regional teams have added new Business Development and Channel Executives responsible for Key Account Management and generating new business.
The marketing team has also been expanded to increase focus on e-commerce, with the appointment of a new Manager E-Commerce, a Manager Advertising and Brand, and Online & Digital Marketing Coordinators in Fiji, Sydney and Hong Kong. These positions all report to General Manager Marketing Franc Zvonar, who is also responsible for the Fiji Airways’ Membership Programme Tabua Club.

Stefan Pichler, Fiji Airways Managing Director and CEO comments: “We have set ourselves ambitious sales and expansion targets in our Five Year Master Plan and we’re absolutely intent on achieving these. Obviously it’s a very competitive sales environment for airlines, and low destination awareness in some markets also poses a challenge. Our new Regional General Managers have been appointed based on their ability to deliver sound sales performances despite these challenges, and the new Head Office Sales and Marketing teams will support and complement their work and align with their activities. So we see these expansions as an investment designed to boost our revenues in order to achieve our profit targets.”

Meanwhile, in another significant development, Fiji Airways has signed up with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) for China. This opens up new distribution options for the airline, as it now means that 1,623 registered IATA agents in China can now directly sell Fiji Airways’ fares to customers and issue tickets. The airline recently also signed a new extensive contract with Amadeus to distribute Fiji Airways fares through its Global Distribution System.

Mr. Pichler added: “Getting the BSP in China is critical to our efforts to penetrate the Chinese market, and we will now work with partners on the ground in China to make our presence felt and get more Chinese visitors to Fiji.