Travelport GDS strengthens its airline team in the Middle East and Africa

Headed up by Khalid Alkhalidi as Travelport's new Airline Business Development Director for MEA, the recently strengthened team will have responsibility for both managing airline relationships in the region as well as forming new commercial partnerships to support the overall growth of the Travelport GDS business.

Alkhalidi's appointment, which was made earlier in the year, follows the decision by previous job holder, Fazal Muhammed, to re-locate to Saudi Arabia to head up the company's new direct operation for travel agents in that country.

As a key member of the Travelport management team since 2004, Alkhalidi was previously responsible for driving sales of Travelport's IT services to airlines in the MEA region. In his new role he will report into Matthew Hall, Vice President, Airline Supplier Services for Travelport GDS in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Before joining Travelport, Alkhalidi held a number of senior commercial roles, over a period of 15 years, in high profile travel organizations including Destinations of the World and Trust Tours, and gained a wealth of experience in all aspects of the travel industry including the travel agency, tour operator and wholesale travel services sectors. Prior to joining the travel industry, he spent time as operations manager for a specialist heart surgery centre as well as serving in the military.

"Khalid has made a significant contribution during the five years he has been with the business and has already developed very strong airline relationships in this region. With his extensive knowledge of the aviation sector in the Middle East and Africa, coupled with his highly customer-centric approach, I am confident he will lead this strengthened and highly specialist team from strength to strength,"

said Matthew Hall, Vice President, Airline Supplier Services for Travelport GDS in EMEA.

Since taking up the new role in February, Alkhalidi has made four further appointments to the team as part of the company's commitment to sharpen its focus on the region.

Amanda Finch, Sadullah Dawray and Martin Herbert have each been appointed as Business Development Managers. All have been singled out for their extensive and very relevant knowledge of the GDS sector - Finch previously worked for Worldspan, Amadeus, and Northwest Airlines; Dawray brings a wealth of GDS-related customer services and operational experience gained from working for a number of high profile travel organizations and Herbert joins from Expedia and before that worked for Travelport GDS's European airline team in the UK. Finch has already taken up the reins of her new role, Dawray and Herbert will join in June and August respectively.

Meanwhile, Chaminda Kumara also joins the team as Operations Account Manager. In common with the other new members of the team, Kumara offers highly specialist knowledge of the GDS sector and airline industry having previously worked in the region's commercial operations function and before that as Airline Sales Executive for Worldspan. Palcidus Patrick, who joined the Travelport team in the same role in November 2008, also bringing extensive knowledge of the GDS sector, continues in his role.

Alkhalidi, who, along with his team, is based in the company's regional headquarters for the Middle East and Africa in Dubai, commented

"Travelport is a dynamic organization which is well known in this market for having strong customer relationships and achieving long term content agreements with its airline partners. 2009 will be a very exciting year for our team as we continue to ramp up our presence and invest in this vital region. We will also be introducing new and innovative GDS technology designed to help both our airline and travel agency customers manage their businesses more efficiently. I am delighted to be taking on this exciting role and leading this very talented team"