AUSTRALIAN and Far East specialist Jetabout has been renamed Qantas Holidays. The move, which includes an expanded international programme, is part of parent company Qantas’s bid to push the airline brand.
The name change, announced at the ABTAConvention in Cairns, brings the UK tour operation into line with the global repositioning of Jetabout to Qantas Holidays in North America, Asia and Australia which started six years ago.
Jetabout, which has operated in the UK market for 17 years, admitted the name was not as recognisable in the UK travel trade as it ought to be, while the Qantas brand had immediate recognition.
David Thomas has been appointed as UK general manager for the tour operation, relocating from Qantas Holidays’ Japanese office.
Qantas Holidays product and marketing manager Sally Pollitt dismissed suggestions that greater competitive forces from rival operators had meant Jetabout had lost its way in the trade.
“Far from it,” she said. “We are getting in line with the Qantas Holidays global branding and highlighting the synergies that we have with Qantas and the Oneworld alliance.”
Pollitt said the company’s new-look and revamped 148-page brochure for 2000, due out on December 1, will include single and twin-centre holidays to the US and Africa.
“This will enable us to push the Oneworld alliance for the first time,” she said. “We have so much land product out there that we see the ability to sell Oneworld carriers like British Airways and Cathay Pacific to help increase our air capacity to these destinations.
“As a global company, we have better positioning and improved global buying power. The changes in the UK follow recent moves to extend our telesales reservations for the trade to a seven-day operation,” added Pollitt.