Sabre Travel Network has appointed four executives to newly-created airline sales director roles as part of its strategy to shift responsibility for airline sales and account management from its Europe…
Sabre Travel Network has appointed four executives to newly-created airline sales director roles as part of its strategy to shift responsibility for airline sales and account management from its Europe, Middle East and African (EMEA) headquarters in London to regional centres across Europe and the Middle East.
The airline sales directors, who report to Hamish Broom, Sabre Travel Network’s managing director of airline supplier relations in EMEA, have both regional and global responsibility for sales and business development among existing participating carriers, and for securing new airline participation in the Sabre GDS.
The new executives are:
Antonella Vecchio, who joined Sabre Travel Network last month from Alitalia, and is responsible for developing relationships with airlines based in Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Turkey. During her twenty-year tenure at Alitalia she held director-level positions in distribution, networking planning and marketing.
Andrey Bystrov, based in Moscow, is responsible for building relationships with airlines based in Russia and the 11 former Soviet Republics that comprise the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Before joining Sabre Travel Network he held sales management and supplier relations roles at Marriott and American Express Travel in Russia.
Stockholm-based Mette Wandahl is responsible for airlines based in the Nordic market and Baltic States. She joins from SAS where she spent 10 years performing a variety of account management and project management roles.
Based in Bahrain, Giuseppe Caputo is responsible for carriers located in the Middle East. Since joining Sabre thirteen years ago he has held a number of financial and account management roles, and most recently was located in Rome with responsibility for Sabre’s relationship with Italian-based carriers.
The four new executives complement the existing airline sales team that comprises Frankfurt-based Simone Kramer, responsible for German, Austrian and Swiss-based carriers, and London-based Fintan Moran, Jane Saggers and Soroya Nosworthy. Moran is responsible for UK, Ireland and Israel-based airlines, Saggers for France and Benelux-based carriers, while Eastern European and African-based airlines are managed by Nosworthy.
Broom said: “By creating these new roles and locating our airline sales team in offices across Europe and the Middle East we believe we can better support our airline partners. Not only will we be able to do so at the EMEA level, but given the global remit of the new team, internationally as well.”
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