MSc European Political Economy, 2010
Ancillary Commerce Manager, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
After finishing my Master's at the LSE and my internship at Liberal International, I undertook an internship with the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands at the UN in New York. After my internship I travelled to Costa Rica and Nicaragua to take Spanish classes, simply because I love the language and wanted to experience living in a less developed country.
When I came back to the Netherlands, I started KLM’s Management traineeship for which I applied before leaving for New York. During my traineeship I followed project management and leadership training every 2 months. I also took French lessons. Two months ago, I started as ancillary commerce manager at KLM E-commerce.
I am responsible for all paid options KLM sells online. Aside from tickets, KLM sells seats with extra comfort, upgrades, special meals, hotels, car rentals and CO2 compensation. These products are key for airlines as they provide additional revenue, which is badly needed during the recession in which Air France/KLM has suffered significant losses.
My goal is to develop new products that we can sell online to provide passengers with more choice and KLM with more revenue and to monitor and boost the existing products by better offering or pricing. I determine how the products are offered in all different online channels, how to promote them through marketing campaigns, make sure that new product ideas are translated into IT requirements and that the sales staff, inflight crew and ground staff are aware of the products and how they should deal with them. This is very interesting as this covers many different aspects of the airline and means that I have a lot of stakeholders to engage with.
I chose this job as I wanted to learn as much as possible about E-commerce, an area that is increasingly important in general and at KLM as well. Also, this job gives me the possibility to come up with new products and to be creative.
Studying at LSE broadened my world view and helped me with my application for the Management Traineeship at KLM. Being a student at LSE made me feel really part of London. I lived at Northumberland Hall and Islington, two complete different areas which are both very enjoyable.