Award-winning travel partners for Irish-Australian journeys

Meet Chris Moloughney, Managing Director and founder of our partner travel agency, Emerald Travel, which recently won a prestigious award for their repatriation service during Covid.

Personalised flight bookings for Ireland and Australia

With a surname like hers, it’s no secret Chris has Irish blood in her veins. Her parents moved from Ireland to Australia in the late 1960s. There Chris was born and grew up. Emerald Travel is a family business that started in 2003 and, as ‘Emerald’ suggests, the agency has made its name offering a personalized service to Irish-Australian travellers.

Emerald Travel recently won Outstanding Community Contribution in the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce Awards for service during Covid. It’s an interesting story. While many travel agencies had to shut shop during the pandemic, Emerald Travel kept its doors open, offering a repatriation service for Irish people looking to come home.

Award-winning repatriation service during Covid

“On 23 March 2020 Australia’s borders closed and many Irish people were caught out,” Chris recalls. “There were backpackers and parents visiting in Australia who needed to get home, Irish people living in Australia who needed dispensation to travel for compassionate reasons. We were also assisting Irish families with young children who’d been living in Australia for a few years and might have been thinking of returning to Ireland, and the pandemic galvanized their plans.”

Qatar Airways kept flying which allowed Emerald Travel to work closely as they travel agency partners. “It was tough times though. Each booking had special circumstances coupled with the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic. I’ve always been on-call to our travellers when they’re flying, but this was 24/7,” says Chris. “People were desperate to come home. To get the word out we used social media groups and word spread quickly that Emerald Travel was the place to go for Irish travellers.
“Qatar could only allow 5 to 10 people on a flight – it was cruel!” she adds. “I lived and breathed every booking because each one was so critical.”

Casting the net wider than Ireland and Australian travel bookings

For her business, the pandemic has had some unexpected spin-offs. “We did things we never thought we’d do. Traditionally we’ve just operated between Ireland and Australia, but there were Irish people all over the world, and they needed to get home. We were booking flights from the UK, South Africa, Canada and Europe.

Bringing Irish doctors back to Ireland for pandemic assistance

There was also an initiative (name of the group?) to bring Irish doctors home to help with the healthcare crisis that the pandemic threw Ireland into. “We were part of that process, and booked doctors onto flights from New Zealand, Pakistan… all over the world.”

Covid travel service wins Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce

The exceptional way in which Emerald Travel rose to the challenges of pandemic, earned them this year’s Outstanding Community Contribution award from the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce.

The aftermath: regular flights resume between Ireland and Australia

When Australia’s borders opened, to Chris’s surprise, there was a flood of travel enquiries. “We weren’t ready for the volume of people who wanted to travel and the goodwill from the previous 18 months had built up.” First to return travel to Australia were the VFRs – Irish visiting friends and relatives. Then there were Irish returning for Christmas, then Easter holidays, then for Summer.” Chris breathes a sigh of relief: “It’s settling down a little now.”

Book your flights and reap the benefits

NexVentur has partnered with Qatar Airways to bring you a stellar deal with lots of free extras:

• Save on listed fares
• Get 20kg free extra luggage per adult
• Free preferred seat booking
• Free priority boarding
• Free priority check in
• 75% tier bonus on eligible flights on Qatar Airways
• 100% mileage per family member on all eligible flights
• Priority stand by
• Flexi awards
• Shop & pay with Avios at Qatar Duty Free and Oryx Galleria
• 40 Qcredits to redeem for upgrades,
• Excess baggage
• Al Maha Services ‘meet and assist’ gold service
• Discount on online redemptions
• Extra bonus: all our bookings are done through our travel partners, Emerald Travel, so you get the signature personalized service from Chris and her team and peace of mind that someone’s got your back on long-haul flights.

Download the brochure on this NexVentur Exclusive Flight Offer.

This special flight deal is exclusive to NexVentur and is valid for flights from UK and Ireland to Australia and from Australia to the UK and Ireland. For more information Contact Carole Quinn on +353-(0)87-108-5537 or email [email protected] with your flight dates.

Book your free consultation now and let’s help you get started on your next adventure.