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Wexas is looking for an experienced Air Products Manager to be responsible for negotiating the best possible air fares and override deals, as well as developing airline relationships to maximise revenue and other support from our airline partners. Experience of managing airline relationships and a detailed understanding of air fares, including the implementation of NDC fares, is key to this role.
The successful candidate will also be responsible for ensuring that the sales teams and corporate business development teams are supported and kept up to date with airline and air fare developments. They will also work closely with the Product & Commercial Director, Product Managers and Business Development team to ensure that we maximise earnings from all airline-related opportunities.
This role could be suitable for someone currently in an air product executive role looking for career progression.
Job Title:
Air Products Manager
Reporting To:
Product & Commercial Director
Overall purpose of Position:
Wexas is a travel company with two distinct divisions – a Corporate division which is a travel management company (TMC) and a Leisure division, which operates as both a tailor-made tour operator and travel agent.
Within the Leisure division the main brand Wexas Travel operates as a tailor-made tour operator as well as providing travel agency services to the historic membership base; Best Served Scandinavia, is the UK’s second largest tailor-made tour operator into the Scandinavian region and sells both direct to consumer as well as through third-party travel agents; and The Luxury Holiday Company specialises in tailor-made holidays, typically involving a luxury train trip (such as the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express).
Wexas was early to implement NDC fares and has a high NDC adoption rate across both the leisure and corporate travel departments.
The Wexas head office is in Southwark, London and it has a smaller office in Bournemouth.
Key Responsibilities/Objectives:
- Negotiate with airlines for access to the best possible air fare content, contracts, override deals and marketing support
- Negotiate and manage flight allocations, especially for the Scandinavian region
- Manage the relationships with airlines and Advantage to maximise commercial gain and minimise any losses (i.e. obtain waivers and favours)
- Look for opportunities to derive the maximum revenue from airline nett fare contracts across both sales teams
- Manage the roll out of new NDC fares and enhanced servicing capability
- Ensure the sales teams are aware of all airline and air fare opportunities, providing and/or arranging training as necessary
- Develop the preferred airline strategy with the Product & Commercial Director and communicate this with the sales teams as needed
- Provide an internal ‘help desk’ function for all fares and other airline-related issues
- Manage airline communications and fare distribution, ensuring the sales and operations teams are kept up to date with product, fare and policy changes
- Responsible for ADM management, liaising with accounts, sales & operations departments as necessary
- Provide air fares for the Product Managers as necessary, pro-actively advising them of tactical fare opportunities
- Undertake ad hoc projects related to airfares and airline distribution (technical and procedural) as necessary
- Represent Wexas at business events
- Work closely with the Business Development & Account Management team to provide relevant and meaningful information to our Corporate clients
- Support the Operations team as necessary for fares and ticketing related issues
- Provide support and assistance to the Product & Commercial Director as necessary
Professional/Technical Competencies:
- Excellent commercial awareness, with particular ability to spot opportunities for air fare margin enhancement
- Good negotiation skills
- Detailed knowledge of the travel sales environment, ideally both leisure and corporate
- In-depth knowledge of airline private fare contracts (e.g. net fares, IT fares), corporate and published fares
- Excellent knowledge of GDS systems - especially Amadeus - including knowledge of ticketing
- Experience of implementing NDC fares - an understanding of technical implementation would also be an advantage
- Experience of undertaking thorough system testing for all fares and other airline-related functionality
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Excel
Personal Competencies:
- Positive ‘can-do’ attitude
- Strong interpersonal & communication skills
- Comfortable networker able to develop relationships with partners and suppliers
- Able to command respect from peers and partners
- A team player but with the ability to work on own initiative
- Excellent organisational skills with ability to prioritise effectively
- Pro-active, logical and methodical approach, with good attention to detail
- Displays integrity and reliability
- Sound judgement and common sense
- Works well under pressure
- Sense of humour
How to apply
If you would like to consider joining us, please send your CV and a covering letter to [email protected]. We are an equal opportunities employer.