Rankin will take over the position in September this year

Chris Rankin has been appointed as British Airways’ new head of consumer sales. He will join the company on September 3rd, 2012.

Rankin has a strong travel industry career history starting at Trust House Forte before moving to work for British Airways’ partner airline, Qantas.

He worked his way up through the sales organisation before moving to Australia to take up a senior commercial management role with Qantas Holidays, and subsequently became general manager of the business.

After a move to the agency side running Cruise 1st in Australia, Chris returned to the UK in 2011 to take up his most recent role as head of sales and market development at Air New Zealand.

In his new role at British Airways Rankin will be responsible for the airline’s leisure sales revenue in the UK and Ireland.

He will manage the relationships between British Airways and its leisure sales partners and trade bodies, working with them to drive revenue on both flights and ancillary sales.

Rankin will also be responsible for tactical marketing activity and will lead the consumer sales management team.

Richard Tams, head of UK & Ireland sales at British Airways, said: “We’re delighted that Chris is joining the team. He has an excellent background in the travel industry, with both great airline and agency experience which will be invaluable to the role.”

Rankin replaces Simon Brooks who moved to become the airline’s senior vice president of sales for North America earlier this year.