Easyjet has recruited American Express Global Business Travel’s former UK boss Anthony Drury to further increase its push into the business travel market across Europe.
Drury (pictured) takes up the newly-created position of director of business at the Luton-based carrier. He leaves Amex after holding a series of senior positions since 2002 including general manager of northern Europe which included the UK market.
The airline said that Drury “will play an instrumental role in driving Easyjet’s business proposition strategy across Europe”.
Easyjet’s group commercial director Peter Duffy added that Drury would help take the airline’s “appeal to the business traveller to new heights”.
“Anthony will bring a wealth of expertise in the business travel sector so he can build on the work the team has successfully embarked on over the past three years,” said Duffy. “I look forward to working with him to continue to evolve our business travel product.”
Currently around 11 million of Easyjet’s 61 million annual passengers are travelling on business which represents about 18 per cent of total traffic.
“Anthony is joining Easyjet at an exciting time with the airline’s recent growth in the managed corporate travel market,” said Duffy.
The airline has been working on projects with the three major GDS providers – Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport – to help make it easier for TMCs to book Easyjet flights and the airline has also introduced a trade-only “inclusive fare”.
Drury added: “It's certainly exciting times at Easyjet and I'm really looking forward to building on the team’s current success across the corporate sector in Europe.”
Amex Global Business Travel appointed Champa Magesh as UK general manager during a restructure of its European management in July 2013, when Drury moved to work on “strategic projects” for the TMC.
easyjet.com