20 Jul 2015
Words Brooke Kelly

The Many Faces of the Tourism Industry

Continuing our series profiling the many faces of Australian tourism and accommodation, we introduce you to the leaders and innovators, characters and canny operators of our industry. These are their stories.

Julieanne Alroe

The sky’s no limit for this quiet achiever...

Julieanne Alroe is CEO and managing director of Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC).  She is the steady hand at the controls of not only Brisbane Airport (BNE), but also its burgeoning business community.  Already bigger than some towns and suburbs, BNE is on the cusp of perhaps it’s most exciting growth phase yet.

The first thing you notice about Julieanne Alroe is her quiet, unassuming manner.  There is a calm confidence, no sign of the hubris you might expect of someone in such an influential senior position.

She presides over the largest airport in Australia in terms of land size (2,700 ha), the nation’s second busiest capital city airport, and its third largest by passenger numbers.  In 2014, more than 22 million passengers used BNE on more than 210,000 aircraft movements, earning aeronautical revenues exceeding $210 million and driving total BAC Holdings Limited revenue in excess of $560 million.

That also makes it one of Queensland’s biggest local enterprises, a fact she highlights not for reasons of self-importance, but because of the airport’s vital role in contributing to the community and economy of both city and state.

“Airports, to me, are so fundamental to Australia’s way of life and economic prosperity,” she says.  “The old ‘tyranny of distance’ is a genuine reality for us.  Without aviation, we are a long way from anywhere by boat and, even within our own country, by road or rail.”

Perhaps that’s what drew Alroe, as a young University of Queensland economics graduate, to a career in aviation.  “I suppose, when you’re 20, aviation sounds glamorous,” she laughs, “although I was never interested in the actual flying part.  I wanted to be in management.  It’s that combination of interesting work and worthwhile work.”

She started in Canberra, with the Commonwealth Department of Aviation.  At the time, it ran all of Australia’s airports and owned both Qantas and our then domestic carrier TAA.  After four years, she moved to Sydney Airport, and her career path was sealed.

“From the day I started at Sydney Airport, I’ve just loved it,” she says.  “It is interesting and varied work.  I can honestly say I’ve never been bored … stressed, even a bit frightened at times … but never bored.  Change is constant and it’s quite invigorating really to have that level of dynamic movement about what you are doing.”

At Sydney, Alroe progressed relishing the diversity and opportunity as she moved from security to passenger services, business planning and communications, aviation services, to asset management and planning, rising to become general manager of infrastructure planning and services.

In July 2009, she moved back to Brisbane to take the helm at BAC.  She had grown up in Hendra, a northside suburb bordering the airport, watching planes come and go from her front yard, probably never imagining she might one day run it.  Now she is one of only a handful of women in the world to run a privatised airport.

Alroe oversees BAC’s four primary business units: aeronautical, retail, property and car parking.  While she was building her career in aviation, aviation itself was evolving.  Where airports were once focused entirely on air transport, they are now diverse and complex business hubs.

BNE has two major terminals operating 24-7, servicing 26 airlines flying to 67 destinations.  But it is also home to 420 businesses employing around 21,000 people in everything from freight, warehousing, transport and communications to research, property and infrastructure development, education and training, recreation, tourism, leisure and retail.  That’s a lot of industries to be across.

“When I started out, things like restaurants and duty free were almost incidental,” Alroe says, recalling meals that resembled those served in an army mess.  “Because I’ve been through the transitions, I’ve grown with it.

“Growth was quite organic initially but, with privatisation, we were able to bring more professional property developers, retailers and parking operators in and we have really started to push the envelope in terms of how we can extend those things.”

Accommodation is now one of the most vital components of an airport precinct.  Brisbane Airport’s first and only hotel, the Novotel, opened not long after Alroe arrived.  Beneath a roofline designed to echo the form of an aeroplane wing, it offers 157 rooms, conference rooms, roof terrace, restaurant, bar, pool, gym and sauna.

Soon it will be joined by fellow Accor brands in a new dual hotel development to add a five-star Pullman of 125 rooms, a 3.5-star Ibis with 225 rooms, and a state-of-the-art conference centre for up to 500 delegates.  Work on the $148 million project is about to start, for completion by September 2016.

“These new hotels will be right across the road from the domestic terminal,” Alroe said.  “We have also identified another site at the international terminal, but we’ll wait a couple of years before bringing it online.”

Airport expansion is a major focus for this understated but clearly tenacious businesswoman.  The recent approval of BAC’s Master Plan will see $3.8 billion invested in airport infrastructure over the next decade, allowing Brisbane Airport to cater to an expected doubling of passenger numbers to around 48 million by 2034.

It covers the current $45 million international terminal redevelopment, expansion of the domestic terminal, a rolling program of apron expansion, and major technology and security upgrades.  But, by far the largest project, and most critical to BNE’s growth, is the new $1.35 billion parallel runway due for completion in 2020.

It is a massive undertaking and one being done with great care … care to maintain environmental integrity, and care to inform and engage with the local community at every stage.  The airport’s environmental record and community relationships are very important to Alroe.

“We work very hard to be honest and transparent about what we are doing, and also to have strong credentials and integrity about how we do things,” she says.  Referring to a recent Moreton Bay dredging project to provide the millions of cubic metres of sand needed to build up the runway site, Alroe paid tribute to her environmental, project and community relations teams.

“If we had not been responsible, we could have done harm,” she said.  “Because we had very, very strong environmental management around it, we actually finished well ahead of schedule and under budget.  Because we were very diligent, we didn’t have delays.  People let you get on.”

Once the runway is built, the same care will be taken to commission it.  “To bring that runway into service without alienating people who might be under a flight path for the first time, even though we have a big buffer zone, will be another big challenge.”

But it’s a challenge Alroe looks forward to, because that new runway means a major boost to capacity.  “Brisbane will be able to attract more international flights.  The Sydney and Melbourne expansions are a bit behind us, which will give us an opportunity for a couple of years.  We intend to go after that.”

Alroe is enthusiastic about the outlook for Queensland.  After a lull in tourism product development and refurbishment, she welcomes the revived tourism investment – the planned Howard Smith Wharves and integrated resort and casino in Brisbane, refurbishment of Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast, and arrival of high-end resorts like One and Only Hayman Island and Qualia at Hamilton Island.

“Our big opportunity is on the international front.   As Queensland improves its tourism product, more and more people will come here.  Around 2020, when all this new investment comes on line, including our new runway, it will be a very good news story for Queensland.”

Alroe takes her role in the tourism industry and broader business community very seriously.  She holds board positions with Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ), Australia TradeCoast, Urban Futures Brisbane, and Queensland Theatre Company, to name only a few.

“TEQ is fundamental, a core relationship.  I don’t really see that as extra work, rather an extension of what we are doing at BAC,” she says.  “Part of my job is to be out there selling the airport to the business and political communities.  These activities allow me to have those relationships and keep engaged.”

The Queensland Theatre Company involvement, she admits, is a personal passion.  And, if there’s time for relaxation, she finds joy in reading and listening to classical and baroque music.  Alroe also enjoys travel, which is just as well for someone in her position.  When Informer met her, she had just returned from a trip to Turkey, visiting Gallipoli for the Anzac Centenary in honour of her grandfather who had served there.

Julieanne Alroe’s record of achievement is impressive, to say the least.  Asked about her recent triumph in handling one of the greatest logistical and security challenges for any airport – hosting the world’s most powerful leaders and their delegations in Brisbane for the G20 – she was typically self-effacing.

 “It went well.  We were pleased.  We actually enjoyed it in the end, but that only came because the team had done the hard years for almost 18 months beforehand.  We’ve shown Brisbane is co-operative, we’re friendly, and we’re smart.  We get things done.  A reputation of competence is a very good thing to have.”

Pressed for her G20 highlights, Alroe says it was “special” to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, someone she greatly admires.  But the most pleasure came from watching her team handle the near simultaneous arrival of the Germans, Chinese and Russians.  “It was just magic watching the way they got those aircraft in and out and towed away,” she beamed.  “You could have set it to music, it was so beautiful!”

But there’s little time to reflect on past glories.  “It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, today you have to do it all over again,” she says, referring to the constant need to focus on safety, security and the passenger experience.   Alroe’s clear focus is on the future.

“It think the really big challenge is to get more international passengers to Brisbane, to Queensland.  Now we are getting the capacity and the facilities, our big job for the next decade is to growth those international passenger numbers.”