Director of Aviation - #1798700

Why loveholidays?

At loveholidays - we trailblaze together. We’re on a mission to open the world to everyone, giving our customers’ unlimited choice, unmatched ease and unmissable value for their next getaway. Our team is the driving force behind our role as our customers’ personal holiday expert - the smart way to get away.

We’re using progressive tech to drive cutting-edge innovation and open the world to everyone. Within our Commercial and Support teams, you'll find a place to accelerate your growth by actively seeking learning opportunities and carving your own path. You'll create impact for our future by owning projects and shaping the business strategy to reach shared goals, all within our enhanced international community of collaborative and passionate teams.

The impact you’ll have

This is a pivotal role in the business, reporting directly to the VP Commercial. The Director of Aviation will be accountable for more than £3B of flights transaction value, leading relationships with over 120 airlines across multiple source markets.

The role straddles the commercial, product and technology areas of our flights supply, and requires a blend of strategic, commercial and product skills and knowledge to ensure loveholidays has the broadest, most competitive flights offering in the market.

Your day-to-day:

This a varied role, with flexibility required:

• Full strategic ownership of the Aviation product within loveholidays, including ownership of the Aviation strategic roadmap
• Leading the commercial Aviation Team to maximise revenue opportunities within Aviation and the wider product set
• Understanding Aviation mix and network planning to optimise our Aviation offering to the customer, which underpins our Dynamic Package product
• Working directly with product owners and technical leads to promote Aviation as a product
• Ownership of all Airline relationships, including low cost carrier, scheduled and charter airlines
• Ownership of all technology and data relationships within Aviation, including global distribution system operators, low cost carrier booking partners, and all aviation technology and data partners
• Being the business owner for the cross-functional Aviation Team, including engineers, product owners, analysts, data scientists, and Aviation Operations
• Balancing revenue maximisation with risk mitigation, in a concentrated UK airline industry
• Participating in the Company-wide OKRs process, setting the quarterly objectives to deliver the strategy you have set, and leading the execution of the OKR process within Aviation
• Full financial ownership of the Aviation function, including budgeting and forecasting, and cost control
  
  

Your skillset:

• Deep aviation industry experience and expertise, across low-cost airlines, scheduled carriers and GDS
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills, comfortable up to C-Suite level
• Commercial acumen and negotiation experience
• Strategic mindset
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams to successful outcomes, comfortable working with Product and Technology teams
• Data-driven decision-making
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills
  
  

Desirable

• Experience in fixed commitment and down-payments with airlines with associated negotiation, forecasting and revenue management
• Experience working in other European countries (e.g. Germany, Netherlands)
  
  

The interview journey:

• Talent Acquisition Partner intro - 30 mins
• 1st stage with Hiring Manager - 45 mins
• 2nd stage with key stakeholders including a task to present, followed by team chemistry meetings - 2 hours
• Final stage with senior stakeholders - 30-45 mins