Global exclusive by James Wilkinson in Dubai
Joost Heymeijer, known to many in the Australian hotel scene as the man who set-up and successfully launched Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa in the New South Wales Blue Mountains for nine years, has quite a job on his hands now at one of the world’s largest airlines.
Since moving to Dubai in September 2015, Heymeijer has held one of Emirates’ highest and most important positions in the company as the Senior Vice President of Inflight Catering – Service Delivery.
The best way to describe Heymeijer’s role is if you turned an airplane upside down, anything that would fall out he is responsible for, from cutlery to Dom Perignon Champagne (Emirates is the world’s largest buyer of champagne on the planet and one of the biggest global wine purchasers), orange juice, duvets, pillows and tissues.
Emirates serves over 50 million meals a year across the airline’s luxury First, Business and Economy cabins and not only does he need to ensure the quality remains up there with the world’s best airlines, he also needs to ensure the wines are top shelf, the juices are fresh and the cocktails from the A380 onboard bar are on trend.
To find out how that’s all achieved, HM caught up with him for an exclusive interview in Dubai recently.
