In 1983, Pichler began his career as Head of Sport Promotions for
Nike in
Beaverton, Oregon. In January 2000, Pichler was appointed
CEO of
Thomas Cook AG, a national
tour operator. He helped develop the company to the world's second largest leisure group. In 2009, Pichler joined
Jazeera Airways as CEO. In September 2013, Pichler was appointed Managing Director and
CEO of
Fiji Airways. He was promoted to Chairman of Tourism Fiji in August 2014. Additionally, Pichler served as a member of the Board of Tourism Australia and held roles at the
World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the Tourism Working Group of the
World Economic Forum. With the support of Etihad Airways, Pichler developed a strategic restructuring plan which resulted in dividing the company into 3 separate business units: the first unit was to provide 40 aircraft to Lufthansa Group per wet lease agreement. the second unit, the touristic business including the Austrian daughter company Niki, was sold to Etihad Airways who invested this stake into a joint venture with
TUI Group. And the third unit, New Airberlin, was redesigned to become a network carrier serving the hubs in Duesseldorf and Berlin. All those deals were concluded in December 2016 were designed to enable a new start for airberlin which had lost over 3 billion Euros in the last 10 years. Also in December 2016, he announced his resignation as CEO of Air Berlin effective January 31, 2017 and left to lead Royal Jordanian into a turnaround. ==Personal life==