Bryan Batista has been appointed chief executive officer of Edinburgh-founded travel search company Skyscanner as of June 1, succeeding the departing CEO John Mangelaars.
Skyscanner was acquired in 2016 by China’s biggest online travel company Ctrip.com International — now called Trip.com Group — in a deal valued at £1.4 billion.
Batista has been at Skyscanner for almost 18 months as Chief Operating Officer.
Mangelaars said: “After four and a half incredible years, I am stepping down as CEO and passing the baton to Bryan.
“The company is in a great position, and I feel that now is the right time for me personally to make this change and pursue new ventures.
“I have enormous confidence in Bryan’s leadership and determination to take Skyscanner forward in the next stage of its ambitious growth.”
Batista previously held leadership positions at Tesla and at Booking.com as CEO of Rentalcars.com and SVP of its Trips business unit.
“Since joining, Bryan has been instrumental in building and implementing our long-term strategic vision across the company, which sees Skyscanner search 100 billion prices every day to help travellers plan and book their trip with ease and confidence,” said Skyscanner.
Batista said: “We built Skyscanner because we are travel geeks at heart. We love the thrill of exploring new places and we hate the pain of planning. Since joining Skyscanner, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with our incredible teams and travel partners.
“Stepping into this role is a dream. I get to lead a company that is on a mission to become the world’s number one travel ally.
“I am excited that we are now adding rail and package travel options to that mix – delivering the best deals and the widest selection of travel options to our travellers.
“We are breaking into new markets, adding new products and smarter tools to make travel planning part of the adventure, not the admin.”