Our company / Our business areas and our managing directors

The AERTiCKET Group

Our business areas and our managing directors.

Meet our leaders

Creativity and service are our main points of strength. Our managing directors bring competence and experience with them.

This is how it all started: Founder and CEO Rainer Klee 

After having successfully graduated in business administration in the Southwest of Germany, Rainer Klee moved to Berlin, the city of the Berlin Wall at that time. In Berlin, he started to study psychology and built up various companies at the same time.

In 1988, together with five friends and people he knew, Rainer founded "Titanic Reisen", an independent travel agency with a special focus on long-distance flights.

In 1993, the consolidator AER Reiseservice was founded as a spin-off of Titanic Reisen. Then as now, the shareholders of AERTiCKET are Rainer himself and the AER cooperation.

Rainer holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and has undergone advanced training as coach and facilitator.

Thanks to his in-depth knowledge of the consolidator and travel business, Rainer continuously pushes AERTiCKET's competitive position on a global level.

 

From GDS to Consolidator: Our new COO

Holger Taubmann studied business administration at Lufthansa in Frankfurt after completing his training as an air travel agent. After successfully graduating in 1996, Holger joined the travel distribution system Amadeus.

From 1997 to 2017, he held various positions there, including Chairman of the Management Board of Amadeus Germany, later as Head of the DACH region, then Regional Head for DACH, Scandinavia, Israel and Eastern Europe. From 2011, Holger was responsible for the global GDS business on the Amadeus Management Board in Madrid: leisure/corporate travel agencies online, offline, tour operators, negotiation of airline GDS content etc. as well as product management and product delivery.

After leaving the company in 2017, Holger worked primarily in the private equity and venture capital sector, including as DACH Head for the financial services provider Lowell Financial Services. Since the beginning of 2023, Holger has worked closely with the management team at AERTiCKET in Berlin as a consultant; since the end of 2023, he has been managing the operational business of the Consolidator Group as COO together with founder and CEO Rainer Klee.Holger Taubmann studied business administration at Frankfurt University after completing his training as an commercial airline trainee at Lufthansa German airlines. After successfully graduating in 1996, Holger joined the travel distribution system Amadeus.

From 1997 to 2017, he held various positions at Amadeus, among others Director of the airline account team, later CEO Amadeus Germany, as of 2009 also Head of the DACH region, then Regional VP for DACH, Scandinavia, Israel and Eastern Europe. From September 2011, Holger was responsible for the Amadeus GDS business as part of the Amadeus Executive Board in Madrid: globally responsible for the business with leisure/corporate travel agencies online, offline, tour operators, negotiation of airline GDS content etc. as well as product management and product delivery.

After leaving Amadeus in 2017, Holger worked primarily in the private equity and venture capital sector, including as Regional CEO DACH for the financial services provider Lowell. Since the beginning of 2023, Holger has worked closely with the management team at AERTiCKET in Berlin as a consultant; since the end of 2023 he is managing the operational business of the Consolidator Group as COO together with the founder and CEO Rainer Klee.

 

Clever calculators and smart minds

Friedrich Floto, an internationally experienced finance expert, has worked in various industries and countries, including outside the tourism industry. Until 2011, Friedrich led finance teams in international corporations. From 2012, he was SVP Group Finance and Investor Relations at Air Berlin.

Friedrich has been Group CFO of the AERTiCKET Group since 2021 and is responsible for Finance, Legal and HR.

Under his leadership, the finance department at AERTiCKET is responsible for all financial issues from accounting and controlling to budget and liquidity planning for the entire Group.

The finance team is the point of contact for banks, auditors, payment service providers, investors and authorities. They are responsible for financial risk management and prepare reports for internal and external recipients. In addition to day-to-day operational business, strategic issues and, increasingly, digitalization issues are coming to the fore.

 

Marion Lützen, Geschäftsführerin AERTiCKET Conso GmbH

Full Service & full Content: Our biggest consolidator

THE Consolidator

The biggest consolidator in our group is AERTiCKET Conso GmbH, based in Berlin. Here, around 130 experienced fare specialists work in ticketing and global ticketing, take care of ADMs and refund requests, manage group bookings and offer a 24/7 service 365 days a year.

AERTiCKET Conso GmbH is an exceptional consolidator: it distributes tickets and fares from over 100 countries, works with four GDS systems and offers exclusive airline fares. This is made possible by more than 40 direct connections (incl. NDC) - e.g. from Lufthansa, Air France/KLM, British Airways/Iberia, Oman Air, Eurowings, Singapore Airlines - and by connecting local GDS systems such as Travelsky (China), Sirena (Russia) and Troya (Turkey).

Marion Lützen is in charge of AERTiCKET Conso GmbH.

From Berlin Kreuzberg out into the wide world: Our international partners

Our worldwide partners

The expansion of our national and especially our international partnerships is an important target of the AERTiCKET Group. We would like to offer our customers the best flight content worldwide. This means significantly more availability, local fares and potentially even commissions.

In 2021 we therefore founded Global Conso Tech AG together with several business partners. Our goal is to use the common technology for the distribution of international content. Thanks to the technological focus of Global Conso Tech, the international content will be made available via API interface.

Tim Howe Schröder and Oleksii Murovtsev manage the affairs of Global Conso Tech.

 

Most consolidators in the AERTiCKET Group are generalists; some specialize in ethnic business. The largest international consolidator in the AERTiCKET Group is Picasso Travel / Panorama Travel, headquartered in Los Angeles and in New York City. Picasso Travel is an ethnic consolidator offering service in at least five languages.

Eren Aksoy has been managing Picasso Travel for about 15 years.

Growing successfully worldwide

The AERTiCKET Group currently includes twenty consolidators in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, Brazil, Turkey and the USA.

This will not be the end of the story: The group is continuously growing through acquisitions or through joint ventures with local partners. The latest additions to the AERTiCKET world are airline ticket wholesalers Biletbank, market leader in Turkey, and Skyways in Belgium.

Wolfgang Lehr, international CFO at AERTiCKET, ensures the smooth integration of new consolidators into the group.

During the Corona pandemic, AERTiCKET acquired a consolidator in the UK along with an associated service center in Malaysia. Thanks to this acquisition, the AERTiCKET Group offers its customers an optimized 24/7 service in English.
 

The advantages of a strong association: Good conditions

AFL Linienflugeinkaufs-GmbH in Berlin is responsible for purchasing and marketing for the entire AERTiCKET Group. 

Managing Director Katja Polakowski and her colleague Lars Holling negotiate fares and conditions with our national and international airline partners every year. The combined purchasing power of the entire AERTiCKET Group ensures a solid negotiating position.

AFL is also responsible for the distribution, daily updating and quality control of these fares in all databases and booking systems of the group.  

The marketing team creates and places banners, sends out newsletters, organizes presentations and events - thus ensuring increased sales for airlines and providing AERTiCKET agencies with the latest updates and offers.

 

Technoly - our startup takes off

Berlin is also home to the AERTiCKET subsidiary Technoly. Technoly develops the software for the AERTiCKET Group and the tools for a successful digital transformation of travel agencies.

Technoly has about 60 developers, QAs, product owners and helpdesk/support staff.

They work together to develop software that makes traveling better and booking travel easier. They work in agile workflows and are in constant exchange with the specialized departments of the entire AERTiCKET Group.

This is how they combine tourism expertise with software development skills and guarantee the best possible result for AERTiCKET's clients and for their customers.

Technoly's most important projects are:

  •    Cockpit, our professional booking interface for travel agencies.
  •    My Cockpit, our super practical application for managing bookings

 

Stephan Ebert and Alexander Staerck are the managing directors of Technoly.

One for all (and all for one) : IT and technology

The headquarters of the AERTiCKET Group are in Berlin Kreuzberg. 

This is where our technical heart is beating: In Los Angeles, the network needs to be configured anew? The colleagues in Bordeaux need new headsets? The developers require more server capacity? Our IT department will take care of it.

Tariffs can't be booked because there's a technical problem? Our 24/7 support team will help quickly and competently.

The 40 websites of the company group are developed and maintained in Berlin too.

Maren Exel is responsible for these key services.

 

Know how: The tariff specialists from airfair

AERTiCKET's subsidiary airfair has been Europe's leader in fare data collection for over 20 years. The company manages fares for airlines, consolidators, online travel agencies and tour operators all over the world.

airfair understands the market and offers its services to airlines as well as to stationary and online operating agencies and tour operators.

Managing Director Stefanie Campeggi is in charge of airfair.