‘Please take me seriously’: 10-year-old writes to Qantas boss
In a letter to Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, budding businessman Alex Jacquot asked for tips on running an airline.
A 10-year-old boy has written to the chief executive of Qantas Airways asking for advice on how to run his own airline.
Alex Jacquot, the “CEO and co-founder of Oceania Express”, said he had extra time to work on his business due to the school holidays.
In a letter to Alan Joyce, boss of Australia’s biggest airline, he introduced himself and said how old he was before asking: “Please take me seriously.”
Alex said he had already considered what he needed to run a successful business, including types of planes, flight numbers and catering.
He added that he had already appointed a “CFO, a head of IT, a head of maintenance, a head of on-board services and a head of legal”, alongside his co-founder and best friend Wolf.
Asking for tips, Alex wrote: “I like working on my airline. Seeing as it is the school holidays, I have more time to work.
“But I don’t have anything to do (that I can think of).
“Do you have any ideas of what I can do? Seeing as you are the CEO of Qantas I thought I’d ask you.”
He closed the letter by asking for advice on sleep during long-haul flights from Australia to London.
In a letter of response, Mr Joyce thanked Alex for getting touch and said his number one tip was to put “safety front and centre”.
He also offered Alex a tour of the company’s Operations Centre and invited him to a meeting on Project Sunrise, Qantas’s plan to fly passengers non-stop between Australia’s east coast and London.
Mr Joyce said: “We want to think up as many ideas as possible to make the journey more comfortable for all.
“For this reason, I would like to invite you to a Project Sunrise meeting between myself, as the CEO of Australia’s oldest airline, and you, as the CEO of Australia’s newest airline.”
Qantas posted the exchange on Twitter, with users praising Mr Joyce for his response.
In a reply to the tweet, @itsme_heather said: “As a former Qantas employee, I could not be more proud than I am right now to be affiliated with a company (that I will always feel part of). Well done, Alan.”
