Flight Centre Travel Group has created two new executive roles to lead its global leisure strategy, appointing Christopher Steiner as chief AI officer and Rob New as head of digital commerce.
The move comes as FCTG’s online business grows to represent almost half of all bookings for its flagship Flight Centre brand.
Christopher Steiner, who previously led the global leisure product management and engineering division as chief experience officer, becomes Chief AI Officer (CAIO). Former Jetmax general manager Rob New moves to a head of digital commerce role.
Both positions are newly created, part of a dedicated executive layer FCTG has built to accelerate its investment in artificial intelligence and digital commerce.
What the new roles will do
Steiner will lead the group’s agentic accelerator program, aimed at reshaping the global leisure operating model into what the company describes as an AI-powered productivity engine.
“The deployment of AI agents will make our people sharper, faster and better informed and that is what the agentic model is designed to do across every one of our leisure brands and functions,” says Steiner.
New will bring together the ecommerce platforms and capabilities behind how customers discover, book and manage travel across FCTG’s digital portfolio.
“We have an extensive collection of brands and a significant digital footprint,” he remarks.
“This role is about unlocking what that portfolio can do when it operates as one connected commercial engine.”
Why now?
The appointments come as the group weighs the shifting balance between online and person-to-person travel selling, with digital now accounting for close to half of Flight Centre brand’s total bookings.
“Customer expectations are being reshaped in real time by AI, and the economics of online and person-to-person travel are shifting with them,” says Flight Centre global leisure CEO James Kavanagh.
“To invest and grow at the speed this deserves, you need people who wake up thinking about nothing else.
“Chris and Rob are exactly who you want leading a transformation like this.”
KARRYON UNPACKS: With online sitting at nearly half of Flight Centre’s leisure bookings, these two roles signal where the group’s biggest travel retailer sees its growth coming from. For travel advisors, the message is that AI is being positioned to support the human sell rather than replace it: Steiner’s brief is agents that make people “sharper, faster and better informed”, not redundant.
