It all started with a ski trip. Frustrated by not finding an affordable flight to the French Alps, British computer scientist Gareth Williams opened an Excel sheet and, along with two friends, began sketching a website capable of comparing prices from all commercial airlines in the world. It was the year 2001. Two years later, Skyscanner was born, now a multimillion-dollar metasearch engine —and Scotland's first unicorn— that tracks over 80 billion prices every day to inspire and save money for the 100 million users who visit it each month.
For the past year, the company has been led by Portuguese Bryan Batista. With experience in giants like Booking and Tesla, the executive has been in Madrid this week. From Miami to Hong Kong, from Singapore to Barcelona, where Skyscanner has 200 employees, Batista is a man in constant motion. A friendly and smiling CEO who holds a good number of travel tricks and is now sharing them with EL MUNDO.