Etihad Airways announces new appointments in sales team

Jean-Marc Crescent has been appointed as vice president of global account sales, while Joost den Hartog will take up the post of vice president of Europe based in Berlin, where Etihad Airways will locate its new regional and German offices. Adam Phillips, who is currently general manager of France, has also been promoted to vice president of Asia Pacific North and the Indian subcontinent. They will report directly to Daniel Barranger, Etihad Airways' vice president of global sales.

In other staff developments, Robert Chad will move from general manager Abu Dhabi to become general manager France, reporting to Joost den Hartog, while Joseph Chamoun has been appointed as the new general manager Abu Dhabi sales, reporting to Hareb Al Muhairi,vice president of UAE sales, after four years as general manager of Lebanon.

The airline has also announced that Judith Crompton, head of global account sales, will return to Australia after two successful years in the position. Crompton has been overseeing the airline's multinational accounts worldwide from London whilst managing a team of 12 sales specialists across Etihad Airways' fast-growing network.

Entering an important phase

"We are moving into an important phase of our growth as a truly global airline and these new appointments will be critically important to building on the success that has been achieved so far," said Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways chief commercial officer. "Along with our continued investment in product, service and network development, we are confident that this highly experienced team will drive the implementation of our sales and distribution strategies to even greater heights in the coming years."

The developments within the global sales team follow a run of successes and a new milestone earlier this month which saw more than 65 500 flight bookings made on a day with the Abu Dhabi based airline. The figure was the highest number of bookings ever made in a single day with Etihad Airways and exceeded the previous record made in January by 13%.

In addition, passenger bookings for Thursday, 14 June to Sunday, 17 June were the highest of any four days previously experienced by Etihad Airways, supported by the airline's much talked about new global television and social media campaign.