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Flight Centre's plan to be a global leader in blending offline & online

It's sometimes difficult to picture the offline and online world working in unison, especially in travel, but it's now Atle Skalleberg's job to make it happen for Flight Centre.

It’s sometimes difficult to picture the offline and online world working in unison, especially in travel, but it’s now Atle Skalleberg’s job to make it happen for Flight Centre.

The former Managing Director of Flight Centre-owned StudentUniverse has been appointed to the newly created role of Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and is responsible not only for increasing the company’s online presence, but assisting it in becoming a global leader in blending offline and online travel services.

In his new role, Skalleberg will continue to be based out of Boston, where he’ll work with teams in the American city as well as the Brisbane HQ to provide e-commerce, mobile development, online marketing and business intelligence services to Flight Centre’s leisure brands globally.

work in a hotel

He’ll also be responsible for improving the company’s user experiences and booking services, meet demand of tech-savvy leisure travellers and continue to work closely with the StudentUniverse executive team to manage and grow the business globally.

“Having a global digital leader will help us develop and execute on a clear digital commerce strategy, build a world class team and drive the digital transformation that will propel online and mobile services as part of our blended travel strategy,” Flight Centre’s Graham Turner said.

“The StudentUniverse acquisition became a catalyst for digital change management and Atle’s competencies make him the right leader for the teams that will continue our digital transformation.”

Graham Turner, Flight Centre Managing Director

“Our enhanced digital capability, together with our previously signaled investments in customer relationship management and mid office systems, will see us perfectly positioned to be the global leader in providing seamlessly blended offline and online shopping experiences that allow customers to transact or interact with us when and how they want.”

Skalleberg will continue to report to Dean Smith, FLT’s president in the Americas. His appointment comes ahead of the official launch of Aunt Betty, which will target the online holiday package market.

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