Edinburgh-based Skyscanner.net has appointed Ray Nolan as its new chairman. Nolan joins the company as it prepares for a major push for growth in existing and new markets.

Published: 25 Oct 2010

Edinburgh-based Skyscanner.net has appointed Ray Nolan as its new chairman. Nolan joins the company as it prepares for a major push for growth in existing and new markets.

“With the company’s direct relationships with airlines and OTAs and its exceptionally strong multi-national model, Skyscanner is uniquely placed in the flight search market. The last two years have been extremely successful but Skyscanner is now set for yet another exponential growth spurt,” said Nolan.

Founder of Web Reservations International, the parent company of Hostelworld.com accommodation booking site among others, Nolan last year led the organisation through a $340 million sale.

Performance

The company says its revenue for July-September 2010 period topped £3.5 million, up 90 percent year on year. The site attracts over 10 million users per month.

While the UK alone accounted for nearly 10 million visitors across these three months, the company says it is the strong international performance that is largely responsible for the company’s continued buoyant growth, with 68 percent of search traffic now coming from overseas. Skyscanner receives traffic from over 200 countries worldwide – 30 of those each delivering over 50,000 visitors to the site every month.

Skyscanner says it has performed particularly well in Europe. Year on year traffic figures are up 47 percent, with Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Russia, Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland all in the top 10 ranking countries. The USA is another top 10 market, with year on year figures up 45 percent.

“Creating a robust international business model has always been a fundamental element of our business strategy,” said Gareth Williams, CEO of Skyscanner. “Skyscanner’s strong international growth – in Asia and the Pacific Rim as well as Europe and the USA – is fuelled by highly profitable core markets and our expanding network of direct commercial partnerships with airlines, online travel agents and other travel companies throughout the world.

“We’re also particularly proud of the fact that growing our user base has not been at the expense of existing users – over 50 percent of our monthly sessions are sourced from repeat users,” said Williams.