Rian Hill
Department:
Reservations/Marketing
Country/State:
Australia/VIC/NSW
Home City:
Melbourne
Date of Passing:
30/10/2020
Vale Rian Hill
News of the peaceful passing of Rian Hill impacted many of us. He was too young to leave given the respect he had professionally earnt.
Rian commenced with Qantas Melbourne as a Reservations Sales Agent in 1980. After QANTAM training, he swiftly became known as a person of talent seldom seen at such an early stage in the specialised customer service role. Subsequently he speedily moved through the department ranks displaying effective authority, problem solving excellence, empathy and procedural systems distinction.
Along with these professional attributes he was regarded by his Qantas Melbourne peers as a charming, forthright, reliable, endearing, fun loving, great guy. These traits were magnified when as a key member of the "NUGS" - a group of likeminded Qantas Melbourne staff; he would be seen on most Friday nights at Melbourne’s Mitre Tavern in the 1980’s and 1990’s in raucous celebration over whatever theme or reason existed.
Rian consequently moved to Sydney H.O. following an appointment to Departure Processing Reservations Control (DPRC). It was here he was able to work his magic. If anyone was in trouble around the Qantas global network, they knew they could ring Rian (ext 4848) aware and knowing he would deliver a solution, not always by the rules, but always the right solution.
It was after years in that role Rian craved a change and undertook study to achieve a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). He moved to Qantas Holidays where he controlled and directed the global reservations and inventory systems for the Qantas Holidays Group.
Following on, Rian moved from Qantas and managed scheduling and pricing at Great Southern Rail. But with the whiff of Jet Fuel remaining in his veins he moved to SkyWest Airlines to manage corporate pricing and yield management before accepting a position based in Vila with Air Vanuatu to manage their network and pricing.
Rian was hugely popular and widely respected. He will be sadly missed by colleagues and friends in and out of Qantas.
Rod Robson