Leading metasearch website Skyscanner has announced its chief operating officer Bryan Batista has been promoted to chief operating officer.

Batista, who joined the airfare comparison specialist in 2024 following stints at booking.com and Tesla will succeed the outgoing chief John Mangelaars on June 1.

Mangelaars said: “After four and a half incredible years, I am stepping down as CEO and passing the baton to Bryan.

“The company is in a great position, and I feel that now is the right time for me personally to make this change and pursue new ventures. I have enormous confidence in Bryan’s leadership and determination to take Skyscanner forward in the next stage of its ambitious growth.”

In the last year, says it  has seen record performances across its travel products, with double digit growth in flights, car hire and accommodation.

The site, which is part of the global OTA trip.com Group, said it also broke into high growth markets, including India, where it expects to double its audience.

As well leadership positions at Tesla and at Booking.com Batista was formerly chief executive of Rentalcars.com and senior vice president of its Trips business unit.

Since joining Skyscanner, Bryan has been instrumental in building and implementing the company’s long-term strategic vision across the company, which sees Skyscanner search 100 billion prices every day to help travellers plan and book their trip with ease and confidence.

He said: “We built Skyscanner because we are travel geeks at heart. We love the thrill of exploring new places and we hate the pain of planning. Since joining Skyscanner, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with our incredible teams and travel partners.

“Stepping into this role is a dream. I get to lead a company that is on a mission to become the world’s number one travel ally.

“I am excited that we are now adding rail and package travel options to that mix – delivering the best deals and the widest selection of travel options to our travellers. We are breaking into new markets, adding new products and smarter tools to make travel planning part of the adventure, not the admin.”