VICE-PRESIDENT OF TRAVELLER EXPERIENCE, SABRE A recent survey from GBTA showed 77 per cent of business travellers prefer using self-service technology to manage their travel; but also, on average, they use nine different apps to cover air, hotels, car and restaurant bookings. Sabre has addressed this issue with the
FLORIAN TINNUS,
launch of its new Traveller Experience Platform, which aims to bring together all aspects of travel management into a single
mobile app – combining the online booking capabilities of Get There for air and hotel, the itinerary management and messaging features of Tripcase, and the e-payment solutions of Sabre Virtual Payments. Sabre also introduced a travel risk man-
agement solution to the platform: Safepoint, which helps travellers check-in with their employer via a GPS location and request assistance in case of emergency. It’s for these reasons that many of our readers nominated Florian Tinnus, who helped lead the roll-out.
ALEX CRUZ, CEO AND CHAIRMAN, BRITISH AIRWAYS This is the second-year running Alex Cruz has featured in our Hotlist. He was on the list last year as he had just been made executive chairman of British Airways after a number of successful years running Spanish airline Vueling, and we predicted he would be making a few changes to the national carrier. We weren’t wrong – his big move was to start charging for short-haul food and drink after striking a deal with Marks and Spencer, and causing company expense issues for buyers and travellers. This, along with the airline changing its layout to the controversial 3-4-3 in economy on
its B777-200s, has led to accusations of ‘Ryanair-ising’ BA. Cruz also oversaw an important deal with Concur that allows buyers to capture bookings made direct with the airline via Triplink. But, as the price war on short-haul European routes shows no sign of slowing, Cruz could be making a few more contentious decisions before the end of the year.
STEVE HAFNER, CEO, KAYAK The chief executive of travel metasearch engine Kayak – operated by travel giant Priceline – received a number of nominations from our readers, who cited the company’s recent tie-up with British Airways as proof it is going to be an important player in the cor- porate travel space. The deal saw Kayak inte- grating BA in its booking path by using the airline’s already developed new distribution capability, meaning travellers can directly book BA flights through Kayak websites.
Steve Hafner has years of experience in
travel – he co-founded Orbitz, now a sub- sidiary of Expedia, in 1999. He made the decision towards the end of last year to end Kayak’s relationship with ITA Software by Google as a supplier of flight data, instead using data sources from the global distri- bution systems, online travel agencies and other suppliers. Speaking at a recent confer- ence, Hafner said his goal is to “make a better product than Google and to advertise so that people come directly to Kayak”.
GARETH WILLIAMS, CEO, SKYSCANNER Travel giant Ctrip definitely saw something in Gareth Williams and his co-founded business, Skyscanner, as it bought the company in November for £1.4 billion and kept the same management team in place. Skyscanner has been slowly making inroads into the business travel sector, striking deals
with British Airways as early as 2015 and signing a recent partnership with merchandising content platform Routehappy, which allows Skyscanner app users to see and compare amenities by flight and cabin. One of our readers said in their nomination of Williams: “With API [application program-
ming interface] connectivity and NDC [new distribution capability] at the heart of their development, the metasearch’s move into the business-travel space has been stealth-like. It is a smart, focused company with a CEO who ‘gets’ airline distribution and people.”
72 BBT January/February 2017
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