AIRFARES search site Skyscanner will open its first Asia-Pacific operation in Singapore by September, as it embarks on ambitious plans to capitalise on the region’s booming aviation market.
The move comes on the back of the Edinburgh-based company releasing figures detailing a 75 per cent increase in turnover last year to 15.2 million pounds (US$24.3 million).
Ewan Gray, Skyscanner’s newly-appointed regional director for Asia-Pacific, said Singapore was the ideal base to build the Skyscanner brand in the region, as the company had already established a string of commercial relationships in the city-state. When pressed for other reasons, he added that Singapore was a “hotbed for talent”.
While Skyscanner has no plans in the pipeline for other offices in the region, Gray explained that Singapore, China, Indonesia, India and Malaysia were to be the main focus of the company’s expansion drive.
Gray added that these emerging segments pose a unique set of technical and business challenges for the company, owing to their “sophistication and speed of growth”. Nonetheless, Gray was confident that Skyscanner would see through these anticipated problems.
Skyscanner’s rapid rise in the last three years can be attributed to the brisk expansion of airline routes and alliances across the globe, alongside its own growing network of commercial partnerships with airlines, online travel agents and other travel-related organisations.
