Business Development - Flights

About the Role We’re looking for a smart, driven, and domain-strong business professional with 7+ years of experience in Business Development, Partnerships, and Account Management in the travel industry. This is a strategic role where you’ll help scale the Flights vertical by driving new partnerships, optimizing supplier integrations, and enabling operational excellence in airline distribution and automation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Business Development & Strategic Accountability: Execute the Flights vertical roadmap in line with company objectives, ensuring operational and technical feasibility. Revenue Enablement: Identify and activate new airline and supplier partnerships to drive volume and improve margins. Resource Optimisation: Design initiatives to address operational challenges such as budget constraints or GDS integration bottlenecks. Process Innovation: Enhance workflows for partner onboarding, contracting, and automation of ticketing and after-sales processes. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Finance, Product, Growth, and Operations teams to ensure alignment on business goals.

2. Technical Excellence & Product Integration System Expertise: Understanding GDS/CRS platforms (Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport), and emerging distribution models like NDC. Issue Management: Lead root-cause analysis and resolution of operational and tech issues (PNR cancellations, ADM/ACM disputes, API failures). Tech Partnership: Collaborate with Engineering, QA, and Product teams to ensure travel systems are scalable, reliable, and optimised for uptime. Feature Deployment: Oversee pre- and post-deployment validation for new capabilities such as ancillaries, branded fares, and direct airline integrations.

3. Partner & Account ManagementAirline Relationship Management: Build and manage strong commercial relationships with airlines, consolidators, and GDS providers.

Competitive Intelligence: Analyse industry trends, competitor fare strategies, and distribution models to identify growth opportunities. Co-Creation: Collaborate with partners to co-design win-win product and pricing models, including dynamic fares and exclusive deals.

4. Operational Leadership Ticketing Process Excellence: Define best practices for ticket issuance, reissue, refund, and exchange workflows. Market Insights: Conduct route-level and inventory analysis to guide airline strategy and promotional opportunities. Cross-Team Coordination: Partner with CX, Tech, and Growth teams to deliver consistent traveler and partner experiences. Automation & Compliance: Drive automation in fare caching, reconciliation, and reporting to ensure compliance with airline and IATA standards.