Skyscanner chief on the travel search firm that"s really going places

IT seems the sky is the limit for Edinburgh-based flight comparison specialist Skyscanner.

The company wants to be the world’s number one travel search site and is enjoying soaring sales and profits,

with more than 50 million visitors a month to its website.

So

all in all it’s an exciting time for Mark Logan, who is helping to pilot this rapid rise to success as Skyscanner’s chief operating officer.

“The breadth of the

role is very exciting because I’m responsible for product development, sales, operations, marketing and, in conjunction with chief executive Gareth Williams, strategic direction – so every day is different,” he says.

“What also excites me is that Skyscanner is a very dynamic, fast-growing company.

“We’ve hired 140 people since January and the business is growing very rapidly and doing very well.

“That brings with it a whole load of opportunities, excitement and challenges and makes it a very fulfilling and enjoyable job.”

Started

in 2001 after Williams and two IT contractor friends – Bonamy Grimes and Barry Smith – created a spreadsheet to compare budget flights to a French ski resort, Skyscanner is now the world’s fastest growing travel search site, with an 84 per cent increase in traffic in 2012 and more than 20 million downloads of its mobile apps.

“We now employ more than 250 people worldwide so we’ve grown substantially,” Logan explains.

“Most of these are in Edinburgh but also in Singapore, Miami and now Glasgow, which is our second Scottish office.

“We’re

recognised in the industry as the number one independent travel website

and plan to continue our growth. We’re now available in more than 40 countries and 30 languages.

“We

had revenues of £33million last year and profits before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £12million. We’re continuing very strong growth and expect these numbers to be even stronger this year.”

Skyscanner

allows users to search thousands of airlines and travel agents on one site to find the cheapest and most convenient flights for their journey.

When they have found the deal they want, they are connected direct with the airline or travel agent to make their booking.

Skyscanner doesn’t charge users, but receives a small referral fee for each booking through its site.

The company also offers hotel and car hire search.

“We’ve

integrated our technology with travel agents and airlines around the globe and we do that search every day and every hour for our customers, so when they come to the site it’s done for them,” Logan says.

“We

always emphasise having the best coverage for our users. We have more airlines and more travel agents and do a better job of keeping these prices up to date. Our competitors don’t have the technology we have.

“We’ve

built and invested very heavily in our flight search software platform,

while many competitors are just using legacy systems that have been in the airline industry for 30 years.

“We’re working hard right now to get every airline in the world on our site and no one else comes close to doing that.”

Logan

is no stranger to fast-growth technology companies, having worked alongside Scots software entrepreneur David Sibbald at network management software specialist Atlantech, which was sold to US giant Cisco for £113million in 2000.

Having

graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in electronic systems and microprocessor engineering, Logan was working as a graduate engineer

with BT when he spotted the Atlantech job advert in a newspaper.

“Although I was happy in my job at the time, something attracted me about this tiny company,” recalls Logan.

Atlantech’s

‘tin shed’ office on an industrial estate in Cumbernauld wasn’t the most salubrious, but Logan was inspired by Sibbald’s ambition and joined

the company as employee number five.

“I

was there for seven years and ended up as vice-president of engineering, managing 150 engineers and spending about a third of my time working in the US,” Logan syas.

“David Sibbald and I negotiated the acquisition with Cisco, where I arrived as director of software engineering.”

Logan

later rejoined Sibbald to co-found Sumerian Networks, which helps companies predict future IT and infrastructure needs. He was there for seven years and held two main roles as chief technology officer and head

of consultancy.

Cisco was one of the firm’s clients and poached Logan back to be director of advanced services, responsible for managing technology transformation programmes of up to $200million in value

“During that period I got to know Gareth as the chief executive of Skyscanner,” he adds.

“We

had met at an event prior to Cisco and used to meet semi regularly to discuss our common interest and experience in high-growth start-ups.

“Because

I had experience of both start-ups and larger companies, I knew how to scale a company, so we started discussing my joining Skyscanner.

“I

was happy at Cisco and not intending to move, but when we talked over a

number of months I realised that the opportunity at Skyscanner was really compelling.”

Travelling on such a steep trajectory is exhilarating but also operationally challenging.

“The way we think about it is that every three months Skyscanner is a different company,” Logan explains.

“We can’t work the way we did with 30 people when we have 250 people, so we’re very careful.

“First

of all we never take our users – or our potential success – for granted

and we spend a lot of our time focusing on what makes people productive

and effective in the business.

“The idea is that if we get these things right, our people are able to take care of the rest.”

Current

projects include growing the business-to-business offering – which allows other companies to offer their customers Skyscanner’s online travel search service – and expansion into new markets.

The

company won a Queen’s Award for International Trade in April – the highest honour that can be given to a British business – and boasts a host of other awards including Travel Brand of the Year in the 2013 Travel Marketing Awards and one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For.

The vision is stellar – to be the world’s leading travel search site.

“We’d like to be number one in the world without exception,” Logan says.

“We

are working hard to expand into other areas and we essentially see the business as having the potential to be the global number one first choice for travellers.”

Skyscanner chief on the travel search firm that"s really going places