Skyscanner aiming to double scale of Asia-pacific operation
Scottish flight search website makes key hire in growth drive
SKYSCANNER, the fast-growing global travel search website based in Edinburgh, is aiming to more than double its workforce in Singapore as it targets further rapid expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.
The company, noting that it was now attracting more than 50 million visits per month to its site, yesterday highlighted plans to increase its staff numbers in Singapore from about 25 to more than 50 by the end of this year.
Skyscanner, which provides instant online comparisons for millions of flights as well as hotels and car hire, said that it was now attracting about nine million visits per month from people in the Asia-Pacific region.
It noted Asia-Pacific had grown to account for nearly one-fifth of overall visits from having comprised about 7% of its global traffic in 2011.
Skyscanner yesterday also unveiled its appointment of Andy Sleigh, who has been based in Asia for the past seven years, as general manager of its Asia-Pacific operation. The company said Mr Sleigh, whois joining from global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company Accenture, would oversee this “rapidly-expanding” Singaporebased operation, which was opened in 2011.
A spokesman for Skyscanner, which is majority-owned by co- founders and information technology specialists Gareth Williams, Barry Smith, and Bonamy Grimes, said the company was also planning to hire about a further 80 people in Scotland this year.
He put the current workforce in Scotland, where Skyscanner has an office in Glasgow as well as in Edinburgh, at more than 200.
Skyscanner, which opened an office in Beijing last year and has formed a partnership with Chinese internet search engine Baidu, is still planning to launch an operation in Miami by the end of this
a‘ I m impressed by Skyscanner’s level of innovation and commitment to localising its product
year to serve markets in North America and Latin America.
It is understood that Skyscanner, in which Glasgow-based private equity house Scottish Equity Partners has a minority stake as a result of a £2.5 million investment announced in January 2008, has no plans for a stock market flotation in the near term.
Skyscanner enjoyed a 153% jump in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to £12 million last year.
This rise in earnings was achieved on the back of a 65% rise in revenues to £33.5m. The company said it had generated travel bookings for airline partners in excess of £2.3 billion in 2012.
Mr Williams, who is chief executive of Skyscanner, is understood to be focused in the near term on achieving further strong growth, funded from existing resources.
Skyscanner, which was founded in 2003, noted Mr Sleigh had held a number of senior positions at Accenture, including director of strategy consulting in Beijing and most recently director of a management consulting innovation centre in Singapore.
Mr Williams said: “We are seeing rapid growth across the Asian markets and Andy’s experi- ence of developing and executing market strategies across APAC (Asia-Pacific) for major global organisations will be a huge asset to Skyscanner as we continue our rapid growth across the region, and indeed globally.”
Mr Sleigh said: “I’m joining Skyscanner at a hugely exciting time. I’m impressed by Skyscan- ner’s level of innovation and commitment to localising its product across markets, which is key to growth in the Asian markets.”
Skyscanner noted that its free mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices had been downloaded more than 12 million times.