James Harrison Appointed Country Sales Manager, UK & Ireland For SunExpress

James Harrison has been appointed Country Sales Manager, UK & Ireland for SunExpress, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines.

Harrison brings almost 30 years of aviation industry experience to the role, and has held sales and management roles with airlines including British Airways, Gulf Air and most recently, Etihad Airways, where he was General Manager UK & Ireland from 2015 to 2021.

He takes up his new role for SunExpress working alongside SunExpress’ GSA Aviareps in both the UK and Ireland. He was previously Aviareps’ Head of Aviation, with responsibility for leading a team to drive incremental revenue across multiple segments.

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

Tobias Bracht, Head of Sales for SunExpress, says: “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.”

James Harrison, Country Sales Manager UK & Ireland for SunExpress, says: “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 Türkiye from nine UK airports this summer – Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, and London 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 7 weekly flights to Izmir.

SunExpress was again named Best Leisure Airline in Europe at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2024.

SunExpress is a value carrier with a strong presence on the Turkish Riviera and in Anatolia. It is operating a total of 200 routes to 68 destinations across 35 countries in 2024. SunExpress is the leading carrier between Germany-Austria-Switzerland and the Turkish Riviera and Anatolia.

In addition to ‘summer sun and beach’ travel, SunExpress aims to cater for numerous other types of travel for which Türkiye is popular including cultural, archaeological, and culinary tourism, and sports travel.

For more information, visit www.sunexpress.com