SunExpress eyes further growth with new UK and Ireland sales manager

SunExpress, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, has recruited James Harrison as UK and Ireland country sales manager.

Harrison has almost 30 years of aviation industry experience, having held sales and management roles with airlines including British Airways, Gulf Air and most recently, Etihad Airways, where he was UK and Ireland general manager from 2015 to 2021.

In his new role for SunExpress he will be working alongside SunExpress’ GSA [general sales agency] Aviareps in the UK and Ireland.

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He was previously Aviareps’ head of aviation, with responsibility for leading a team to drive incremental revenue across multiple segments.

His appointment comes at a time of rapid growth for SunExpress in the UK and Ireland.

Tobias Bracht, head of sales for SunExpress, said: “The UK and Ireland is a strategically important and fast-growing market for SunExpress.

“With his longstanding airline experience and proven track record, James will play a vital role in supporting this growth and developing our travel industry relationships.”

Harrison added: “SunExpress has built a well-deserved reputation for high quality, high value services to destinations across Türkiye, and I’m thrilled to be bringing my experience to drive their growth in the UK and Ireland.”

SunExpress is operating 136 flights per week to Turkey from nine UK airports this summer – Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted.

This compares to 74 weekly flights from seven airports last year. In 2025, it will launch services from Glasgow and Liverpool.

In Ireland, SunExpress’ summer flight operation from Dublin is three weekly services to Antalya and seven weekly flights to Izmir.

Harrison succeeds Eray Mert, who has moved to become station operations manager at SunExpress.