Ex-Air NZ executive takes Qantas job

By DANIEL RIORDAN

Qantas has hired former Air NZ international manager Grant Lilly to oversee its strategy.

Mr Lilly finishes a six-month restraint-of-trade period in three weeks and will immediately start work in Sydney as Qantas group general manager (commercial strategy).

If Qantas is successful in taking a 25 per cent stake in Air NZ, Mr Lilly might not even have to move from Auckland.

He says he plans to commute across the Ditch until a decision is made.

When Air NZ chief executive Gary Toomey came across from Qantas in January, several top Qantas executives followed.

Mr Lilly, a casualty of Mr Toomey's restructuring after 30 years with the airline, is the first senior executive to go the other way.