New appointment in Vipservice Holding

On May 30, 2018, Alexander Korolev was appointed Director for Development of Products and Services for Air Passenger Transportation of Vipservice Holding. Before that, he worked as a Director for Development of New Markets (German direction). 

We congratulated Alexander with the beginning of a new interesting job and spoke about his past work experience and immediate work plans.

— Alexander, you have been working in the civil aviation for almost 20 years. Which of the past jobs have had the strongest impact on you in terms of professional growth?

— I think that Lufthansa is my "alma mater". My career in aviation began with an interesting, intensive and high-quality training at the Lufthansa training center in Germany. There I acquired knowledge and practical experience in a wide range of professional aviation topics, and later I could select the most interesting and promising area for myself.

The second key job for my career was a position in Aeroflot, where I acquired not only professional, but also administrative experience. I was the head of revenue management department with a headcount of over 200 people, and that was the key department of the commercial block of the airline when the company was just being re-created. During these seven years, I acquired invaluable experience, which influenced my subsequent career.

— You started your career in Lufthansa, then moved to Swiss and later worked in Russian airlines. Is there any difference between foreign and Russian carriers to doing business?

— It is difficult to compare the work in a small team of a representative office of a foreign airline with the scale of tasks in the head office of Aeroflot. Foreign companies are more orderly and disciplined, and, of course, they consistently organize trainings and refresher courses. Probably, in this respect, our carriers have much to learn.

— And from this perspective, the beginning of your professional career at the Lufthansa training center was a good start.

— For me, yes. I came to aviation accidentally, but as it turned out, it was a life-long vaccine. I never regretted it. When I was a student, I was lucky enough to take part in a two-year training program in Frankfurt, and at that time, I was the only participant from Russia. The form of education was similar to the Executive MBA: theoretical part, testing, and then complete submersion into the topic and practice in the respective company departments. For instance, you have gone through the "Sales and Marketing" in Frankfurt and then you are sent for an internship to Cologne, to the city office of Lufthansa. After such training, you can consciously select area, where you want to grow further. In foreign companies I worked in sales departments, while in Aeroflot, on the contrary, I worked in the "Revenue Management & Pricing", which later became my specialization.

— In February 2018, the knowledge of air transportation market led to your move to Vipservice Holding as Director of the German Market. Now you will work on one of the key activity areas of Vipservice Holding — the development of relationships with vendors in aviation. Where do you start?

— The very topic of communication with airlines is not new for me, since most of my experience I got working in their interests: I was speaking and making decisions on behalf of the airline, and agents came to me. Now the situation is different: I am an agent and I come to a carrier. At the same time, I am absolutely sure that we will speak one language with airlines. I hope this will help to get the necessary outcome.

— Are you a strict leader? What is your management strategy?

Brief information

Year of birth                     1974
Marital status                   Married, has three children

Work experience:

May, 2018 – to date — VIP Service JSC, Director for development of products and services for air passenger transportation sales
February-May 2018 — VIP Service JSC, Director for the German Market
2016-2017 — Basfor LLC, Commercial Director
2008-2010 — Atlant-Soyuz airlines (MOSKVA airlines since 2010), Commercial Director, Member of the Board
2007-2008 — AirUnion airlines, Commercial Director, Member of the Board
2007 — Region Avia airlines, Deputy Director General for Development
2000-2007 — Aeroflot – Russian airlines, Director of Revenue Management Department
1997-2000 — SwissAir / Sabena airlines, Sales Manager
1994-1997 — Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Representative Office in Moscow

Education:
1991-1997 – Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation, Social and Economic Faculty, Specialization – Management

Additional education:
Lufthansa LVA training program, specialization – Air Transportation (Germany)

RIMA Strategic Marketing

A joint program of Moscow University of Management and INHolland University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)

Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation, advanced training courses on the topic "International Unified Aviation Security System" IOSA – Flight safety audit