Marking what he described as an eight month period of “progress and delivery” Solomon Airlines General Manager Operations and Commercial, Gus Kraus has handed down the airline’s report card at this week’s ‘Planning for SUCCESS – 2015’ national marketing meeting.
Speaking to around thirty (30) Solomon Airlines management, staff and consultants attending the event at the Heritage Park Hotel in Honiara, Mr Kraus detailed the many achievements accomplished this year.
These, he said, included the inception of a new ‘Flex Price‘ booking system, a new state of the art website and passenger and cargo agreements with Qantas Airways, Jetstar and Air New Zealand.
One of the airline’s biggest achievements, he said, was the signing of critical interline Special Prorate Agreement with Qantas Airways which allows for through airfares from Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and London via Brisbane into Honiara.
“Qantas is a huge airline and for us to have an understanding and agreement with them is a very big deal for us,” Mr Kraus said.
“But one of the key issues we now have is to educate our people to use these agreements and maximize them to our advantage.
“We are also very firmly on the ground in New Zealand where we now have Airline Marketing representing our passenger market and GSA Cargo Services looking after our cargo from New Zealand.
“Basically, we have achieved what we set out to do in March.”
Moving forward, Mr Kraus pointed to the current Fiji impasse which he said he hoped would be resolved in the shortest time.
He also outlined plans to review the A320’s international schedule to consider other destinations but reiterated that “the airline has been there before and we must apply an in-debt ‘due diligence’ prior to announcing any new developments.
“We need to ensure our primary markets are served with prime times, we need to expand the flying capacity of the Airbus A320 as well as the Dash-8s, we have to ensure our domestic schedules meet the requirements for all connections and we have to optimise the current four out of the six major primary routes operated by our Dash-8 fleet.
“We also know we have to work closer with the government to expand the Dash-8 runways and routes.
“Things are evolving and changing – both on an international and domestic basis – and we know we have to keep pace with that.”
