Working Together: Euro Jet Says Goodbye 2017, Hello 10th Year!

How much does a holiday party say about the company hosting it?

I suppose a study has been done somewhere, though this time, let’s have the test case be the Euro Jet 2017 holiday party.

On December 15, 2017, nearly 100 members of the Euro Jet family gathered at the Chateau St. Havel Wellness and Spa Hotel located in Prague for an all-day event.

Though hanging out in the Spa was not in the cards for those in attendance.

Instead employees were greeted by a dearly departed Pig and Rooster, both resting peacefully underneath the gallows.

The first order of the day was a group toast where everyone drank a shot of the traditional plum brandy – Slivovitz. Ice Glasses were then smashed on the ground which quickly melted away.

And the time was just 10 am…

The day proceeded with a cooking demonstration and everyone discovering their inner Swedish Chef as they sliced meat, diced onions, and prepared what would later be the group dinner for all to savor and enjoy.

Amazingly enough, the day would continue until after 2am with a disco party, special dancer show, and presentation of the Eemployee of the Year awards. The 2017 winners were Czech Country Manager Vlasta Sovak and Andrey Lim, Manager of the CIS Region. Congratulations to you both!

By 2 am the group was invigorated, yet pretty exhausted…But it was all worth it as this was indeed the busiest year ever.

So now let’s reflect and look back at 2017:

Here are our Top 10 Highlights (which will become a theme of this blog in 2018):

1.    We had a record number of flights – exceeding 8,000 for the first time. This continued the record growth we have seen year-on-year since Euro Jet started 10 years ago.

2.    Our Operations department got two outstanding additions when new managers Paul Lourenco and Rui Costa joined our family. A special shout out to our OCC team members of Vera Tomankova, Petra Dlabolova, and Ivana Ruzickova who played a major role in the success of operations.

3.    We continued our expansion efforts with the opening of a brand-new lounge in the beautiful Spa Resort town of Karlovy Vary. Led by our Station Manager Stepanka Dleskova, this VIP complimentary crew lounge offers our customers all the comforts of big leather couches, flat screen television, George Clooney tested Nespresso, and a variety of snacks and beverages.

4.    We also began preparations for new lounge openings in Zagreb, Sofia, and Warsaw in 2018.

5.    In February, we co-hosted one of the most popular events at the Schedulers and Dispatchers show in Fort Worth, Texas. Over 400 attendees came to Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar for a night of fun drinking, eating, and even more drinking where so many deals got made that no one could remember them the next morning.

6.    In April, we won the Pegasus Sapphire Award for Best Trip Support company. Our colleague Zaneta Balochova gave an outstanding acceptance speech. And unlike the Academy Awards, there was no mix-up and we did actually win the award!

7.    In May, we shined with another beer party and bustling booth at EBACE in Geneva, Switzerland.

8.    In keeping up with the tradition of hiring highly qualified aviation professionals whose last names are impossible to pronounce, we welcomed our new Country Managers, Danilo Rakocevic in Montenegro, Behare Hallaqi Dujaka in Kosovo and Albania, and Dalila Hasanbegovic in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

9.    Our presence was seen at trade shows across the globe where we attended and exhibited in cities that include: Fort Worth, Texas; Abu Dhabi, UAE; Atlanta, Georgia; Shanghai, China; Geneva, Switzerland; Moscow, Russia; London, England; Morristown, New Jersey; Cannes, France; Las Vegas, Nevada; Vancouver, Canada, and Dubai, UAE.

10.    We closed out 2017 with the busiest December ever (and longest holiday party for that matter) and are ready now for our 10th Year Anniversary. Standby for new lounges, software, team members, and many more adventures along the way.

So back to my earlier point about studying holiday parties.

Can we extract some symbolism from the party?

Sure, we could all do that. The day was long, the night even longer, we worked hard for the food which we prepared, and in the end, everyone had a great time.

You can put the pieces together of what this all could symbolize.

But here is the real meaning:

We had different cooking tables where teams from different countries, operations, pricing, sales, marketing, finance, IT, procurement, and vendor relations all had to figure out what needed to be done in order to complete the task at hand.

And we did this by all working together.

It did not matter what department we were in, how long we had been with the company, what our level is on the organizational chart. None of that mattered. What mattered was that we got the job done by taking exceptional care of the task at hand.

Needless to say, the food that night tasted perfect, the dancing was great, the music even better, and everyone left with a great feeling.

We leave 2017 and enter 2018 ready to do whatever is needed, whether it is at 10 am, 2 am, and work together as a team. Dishes need to be made from scratch, properly prepared with the right ingredients.

And we will prepare them all together, as one big Euro Jet family.

And while we had to say goodbye to a pig and a rooster, we will dedicate 2017 to them and thank them for the memories. We would like to think they were smiling down at us with a little oink-oink and cock-a-doodle-doo…

Cheers to All and Happy 2018!

Now let the 10th Anniversary Begin!!!