Patrick Haller is a fuel manager at Thomson Airways. He is managing the implementation of the emission trading scheme at the airline and is closely involved with performance monitoring at the UK carrier
How did you get into the aviation business?
My current role came right out of the left field. I majored in finance and thought I would be a finance controller one day. Now I am looking at charts and flight plans but it didn't take long to fall in love with this industry.
How did you get started?
After studying International Business at a German university, I joined the graduate scheme at Thomson parent TUI in 2006. I had already spent three semesters all over the world and wanted to explore working in another foreign country. So I moved to the UK for three months to start an assignment as a financial analyst for the airline's fuel conservation programme. I really enjoyed working in the airline business and wanted to get to know the commercial side, so I completed three months in revenue management. Those six months in two very different fields of an airline convinced me to start as fuel manager for Thomson Airways in late 2007.
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What's involved in a typical week's work for you?
Mainly meetings! I am in regular contact with the fuel conservation champions in flight operations, ground operations, customer services and engineering. Additionally, I am working closely with finance and IT to ensure that we have the best data available for our performance monitoring. And as we are a big group containing airlines in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, we share best practices among each other. I really enjoy this international aspect of my job. When I am at my desk, I analyse our performance or work on new business cases. Here my financial knowledge comes in handy.
Of course, there are always projects running next to the day-to-day activities. Projects in the past have included the implementation of IT systems. Present projects range from the emission trading scheme to business cases around avionics and maintenance activities. We have also built a successful relationship with air traffic control provider NATS and have regular meetings with them trying to make the UK airspace more efficient.
The greatest thing is that no week is ever the same. And as the pressure on the airline industry will not ease off, I do not expect my job to become boring in the future.
How has the economy affected your role within your business?
You might think that the decrease in fuel price took away some pressure. But fuel always will be one of our biggest expenditures and we need to keep a close eye on this cost. My role is to ensure that the larger strategic projects have a sustainable impact on our performance. Additionally, with the ETS on the horizon, we will keep the foot on the pedal to drive our fuel conservation programme further.
What has been your greatest success?
When I joined, Thomson Airways had started many small initiatives, but we struggled to co-ordinate and measure the success of these projects initially. Now we have fuel conservation champions in key departments, a flightcrew fuel team, a regular fuel forum with the board and a much better understanding of our performance. In the past year, I have undertaken a programme of talks with our pilots and management teams to ensure emissions and fuel management are at the forefront of all our activities.
And your greatest challenge?
Coming from the financial world, the aviation industry was all Greek to me. I had to quickly understand the technical detail behind our flight operation to be able to successfully influence behaviours and procedures.
Due to the diversity of my role I keep learning every day and need to have a desire to embrace new challenges as they arise.
Source: Flight International
