In a move he called "a complete 360," Andrew Menkes vacated the post he recently assumed as president of HRG Consulting North America for that of senior vice president of sales for the Americas at Eos Airlines, the Purchase, N.Y.-based carrier announced earlier this month. Menkes began his new role Sept. 1, reporting to Toby Joseph, executive vice president of global sales at Eos and former global COO of TQ3 Travel Solutions.
Menkes joins Eos just as the airline begins to expand its service. On Sept. 8, the carrier added an additional flight to its existing route between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and London Stansted Airport in the United Kingdom. Menkes added that while Eos has not identified any specific markets, it plans to increase its destinations on both sides of the Atlantic during the next year.
Just six months ago, Menkes—then an independent consultant based in Princeton, N.J.—sold his business to HRG and signed on as president of the travel management company's newly created North American consulting unit
(BTNonline, April 6). Menkes said he accepted HRG's offer based on the TMC's intention to invest in research capabilities. "We parted on the best of terms. This Eos opportunity came about by coincidence in that I had done consulting work with them last year and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse," Menkes said. "The folks at HRG were very kind in enabling me to depart under mutually agreeable terms."
A 25-year industry veteran, Menkes' career has covered just about every angle of the business travel industry, including pioneering the Airlines Reporting Corp. Corporate Travel Department designation in 1999, for which BTN named him Travel Manager of the Year
(BTN, Aug. 2, 1999). "I've gone from the airline side to the agency side, from a corporate travel manager to a consultant, and now it's a complete 360—I'm back on the airline side," he said. "When I was on the airline side, I did sales and certainly when you're a consultant, you've got to sell the project. In this industry, we're all salespeople unless you're a travel buyer."