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Qantas CEO responds to 10-year-old's letter for advice on starting an airline

Alex Jacquot went straight to the top for tips

Helen Coffey
Tuesday 12 March 2019 12:11 GMT
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Qantas' CEO received an unusual letter
Qantas' CEO received an unusual letter (Getty )

A 10-year-old boy who wrote to the CEO of Qantas asking for “tips on starting an airline” was ecstatic when he received a reply.

Alex Jacquot penned Qantas boss Alan Joyce a letter in which he asked for advice on how to get things moving with his airline, Oceania Express.

“I’ve already started some stuff, like what types of planes I’ll need, flight numbers and catering,“ he said.

Jacquot also revealed that he’d managed to recruit his top management team already, including a CFO, head of IT, head of maintenance, head of onboard services and head of legal.

“Seeing as it is the school holidays, I have more time to work,” he said. “But I don’t have anything to do (that I can think of). Do you have any ideas of what I can do?”

He also asked for “tips on starting an airline”, as well as tips on how passengers could sleep on an ultra-long-haul service from Australia to the UK.

“I’m thinking about, as you are, an A350 for Sydney/Melbourne to London flights,” he wrote. “We are having a lot of trouble thinking about sleep. Do you have any advice?”

The Qantas CEO surprised Jacquot by taking the time to write back, saying: “I’m not typically in the business of giving advice to my competitors,” but “I’m going to make an exception on this occasion because I too was once a young boy who was so curious about flight and all its possibilities.“

Joyce advised Jacquot to prioritise safety, comfort and price point, and invited him to attend a Project Sunrise meeting to discuss ideas for helping passengers sleep during flights from the east coast of Australia to London.

“We can compare notes on what it’s like to run an airline,” he added.

Qantas shared Jacquot’s letter and Joyce’s response on social media, with the tweet quickly racking up more than 50,000 likes and 21,000 retweets.

Alex told Sydney radio station 2GB he was ”so excited“ to get the letter.

”I was running around the house for 10 minutes. I can’t believe it,“ he said.

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