Consolidated annual turnover approaches € 500 million

Otravo acquires Scandinavian online travel organisation Flygstolen

Amsterdam, 6th July 2016 – Since Tuesday 5th July 2016 Otravo is the owner of Scandinavian online travel organisation Flygstolen. Otravo is the parent company of online travel organisations Vliegtickets.nl, Vliegtickets.be, WTC.nl and Schipholtickets.nl. Including Flygstolen’s turnover, Otravo’s consolidated annual turnover now approaches € 500 million.

Flygstolen was founded in 2004 and operates from Sweden with its successful brands Flygstolen (in Sweden) and Tripmonster (in Denmark and Norway). Its highly automated business processes allow Flygstolen to realise an annual turnover of over € 170 million with just 30 FTEs.

Why did Otravo decide to choose this specific market operator as a partner? Scandinavian culture and mentality are relatively close to the Dutch. The intensive (online) travel behaviour of the population in Scandinavian countries was also a decisive factor.

Flygstolen’s current CEO, Linda Bjernstål, will stay on and cooperate closely with Otravo’s CEO, Raymond Vrijenhoek. Bjernstål: “In our ambition to become the leading online travel agency in Scandinavia, we could not be happier than to have Otravo by our side as a partner in this process. In the past, there have been contacts with interested parties, but it never felt good at the time. However, during talks with Otravo I became convinced a combination would be the right move for Flygstolen. Their deep knowledge of the travel industry and vast experience with online and offline marketing can reinforce our strong Scandinavian brands. I am looking forward to the journey we have ahead of us.”

Raymond Vrijenhoek, CEO of Otravo, adds: “This is our first international acquisition. Together with the establishment of our new office in Belgium later this year, Otravo has now become an international operator. Our organisations can mutually reinforce each other: Flygstolen is a very efficient business with excellent systems, whereas we have significant experience in online and offline marketing to increase Otravo’s agility as a whole. Of course, there will also be various synergy advantages. In the European market we are aiming for a leading position in the online travel industry, with market-leading positions in a number of countries. Therefore, Otravo is always on the look-out for online travel organisations with a strong brand recognition and potential for fast growth in their respective home markets, such as Flygstolen.”

Bijlagen

148 KB jpeg Visual Otravo en Flygstulen

10 KB png Logo Flygstolen

18 KB png Logo Tripmonster

56 KB jpg Logo Otravo

138 KB jpeg Left to right: Linda Bjernstål - CEO Flygstolen Raymond Vrijenhoek - CEO Otravo Jolanda Degen - Director Otravo

Flygstolen was founded in 2004 and operates in Sweden under its own brand name and in Denmark and Norway with the brand Tripmonster. In addition to airline tickets, Flygstolen offers a broad range of related travel products including hotels, car rental and travel insurance.

Vliegtickets.nl was founded is 1987 and part of travel organisation Otravo since 2014, together with WTC.nl. Schipholtickets.nl was acquired earlier this year. Otravo is market leader in online tickets and holidays in the BeNeLux countries.

For additional information, please contact Mr Casper van Diemen at +31 (0)20 – 407 10 52 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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