Roger Johnson, Sales Manager UK and Ireland, Lauda Air
Education: seven 0′ levels and a national diploma in travel and tourism.
Training: Chartered Institute of Marketing advanced certificate and various on the job training programmes with different airlines.
First travel job: business travel consultant with Thomas Cook in London, which gave Roger a good basic grounding in the industry and taught him that good communication skills are essential.
Career path: worked at Thomas Cook, from 1983-86, then went to Virgin Atlantic as a fares consultant, later becoming a trainer and then a lead agent. After two years, he joined Air Europe until the firm collapsed in 1991 and moved to AviaReps. He remained here for five years working his way up from sales manager to business development manager across the whole AviaReps airline portfolio. From 1996-1997 he was airline contracts manager at USIT Travel, a specialist operator in the student market. His last job before joining Lauda Air was at Continental Airlines, where he was sales manager responsible for the student, youth and entertainment markets. Left to join Lauda Air as sales manager for UK and Ireland in March this year.
Advice for people wishing to develop a career in travel: “Despite a constantly changing, developing and ever demanding environment, never forget that travel is fundamentally about building close relationships and ties with both the trade and work colleagues.”