How internal mobility at has shaped my career at Qantas

I’ve been here for 20 years. I started as a QantasLink flight attendant, then moved into cabin crew training. I’ve worked in emergency planning, with our corporate sales and agency partnerships teams, our fleet presentation teams, as an airport customer experience manager and, four years ago, I came to Customer Journey Operations. I know a lot of people! 

My team’s job is to provide a solution to a problem as quickly as we can and with minimal disruption to your trip. We look at the five-day window out from your flight through to the time you get to your destination. We’re focused on cancellations, delays, missed connections, plus customers with specific needs. We might have an aircraft that has to divert somewhere – so what can we do to recover our customers on their journey from there? 

We find ways to minimise that impact. We work in the operations centre with teams including our meteorologists, crewing, engineering and operations controllers to get updates on what might be impacting our customers and our aircraft around the network. It can be really challenging so we always try to put ourselves in the customers’ shoes to solve issues. 

It was always my dream to work for Qantas. Prior to here, I was a primary school teacher. The contingency planning you learn as a teacher – “If this happens, then do this” – became part of my mode of operation. What’s really important in our 24/7 environment is that everyone gives absolutely everything they’ve got. 

One of my favourite paces ever is New York. But my home away from home is Hawaii. You walk into that terminal in Honolulu and smell the air – it’s an instant feeling of… relax.

Matt Roberts
Manager, Customer Journey Operations