The Interview Ailsa Pollard,


dnata Travel UK


Incoming chief executive tells Lucy Huxley about her plans for the ‘sleeping giant’ as she prepares to start her role on November 1


A


ilsa Pollard says she will approach her new challenge as chief executive of


dnata Travel UK with “humility and ambition” and is keen to do this in line with the group’s overall guiding principle. “Our North Star across the


business globally is to reconnect a better world. That’s very important,” she says. Pollard replaces John Bevan –


who has moved to Dubai to oversee all aspects of dnata’s global travel business, as divisional senior vice- president for travel – and says her priority will be to look at “where we should focus so that we come out of the pandemic stronger”. She said: “We have shifted our


focus from size and volume to profitability. We need to be more selective about where we play, where we win and how we can help our customers and agents.” Pollard has been part of dnata’s


senior leadership team for 12 years, including working on investments, mergers and acquisitions, overseeing


10 7 OCTOBER 2021


the rollout of Emirates Holidays to 36 markets, and most recently as senior vice-president of transformation and consumer businesses. Now she is in charge of Gold Medal (including Pure Luxury and Cruise Plus), Travelbag, Travel Republic, Netflights and Sunmaster – and has big plans. “Just before Covid we were


looking at the global portfolio of dnata Travel,” she says. “It had grown all these arms and legs in different directions. We were fat in certain areas and were looking to reprioritise things. That plan was in place already but, because of the pandemic, we had to go a lot deeper. Some of these were very tough decisions.”


Restructuring The group exited some businesses in Germany and India, while in the UK it sold Global Travel Group to The Travel Network Group and merged Gold Medal and Travel 2. Speaking about the merger, she


explains: “We went into that process looking at the pros and cons. Covid probably accelerated some of that thinking, which made the cons of doing things less concerning. We knew


we had to consolidate our real estate portfolio, and probably underestimated the passion for both brands, but Covid made us make the brave move, believe in our products, services and teams, and emerge even stronger.” Key staff in Glasgow were


retained as homeworkers and the team focused on refunds and dialogue with agents, “making sure we were servicing them and working with them on this journey of change”. Pollard adds: “There will be


bits we haven’t got right. We are significantly reduced in numbers but were careful not to do blanket reductions across teams, and we’ve had to focus on cost reduction. But we have focused our spend on retaining talent and have been consistent in IT investment over the past 18 months.” The focus now is on how to help agents service their customers better,


she says. A new website will shortly go live. More than 1,200 agents have been trained on it so far with “significant levels of adoption”. “Agents have an opportunity right


now and it shouldn’t be wasted,” she says, stressing the importance of developing “lifetime customers”. “It’s all about the retention of


customers and removing friction points – making sure customers know that we’ve got their backs,” she adds. “For the next few years, there’s


going to be complexity – that’s the opportunity for agents, to hand-hold customers through this. People can travel, but it’s not easy. Agents’ expertise will be really valued.


Opportunities “Gold Medal is the market-leading trade-only tour operator. What more product can we help service our


For the next few years, there’s going to be


complexity – that’s the opportunity for agents. Their expertise will be really valued


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