John Friel

John Friel has a career spanning 26 Years in the Travel industry in both the Retail, Online and Airline vertices, 15 of these 26 years in Africa, having senior roles within the continent in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania at Emirates Airline, Comair Limited (British Airways & kulula.com) and Etihad Airways with roles in Sales, Marketing, Airline Revenue Management, Pricing, Airline Ancillary Revenue and Fleet Planning  

John ran Etihad airlines in South & East Africa between June 2014 and August 2019 where he was responsible for the Airlines Operation and Commercial performance. He moved to Travelstart in 2019 as chief intergration officer to ensure the seamless intergration of the Club Travel business units into the Travelstart Group.

Now, as Country Manager of Travelstart in South Africa, John drive’s the Commercial Strategy of the largest OTA in Africa with responsibilities that include Sales, Marketing, Media, Operations/Customer Service & online customer experience of the companies largest business.