Opodo, the pan European online travel portal - is undertaking a major recruitment drive to build the company as the leader in its field by 2004.

Opodo has grown from 32 people to more than 75 staff between June 2001 and August 2002, with plans to grow to an estimated 100 employees across Europe by 2004.

Opodo Interim CEO Simon Tucker commented, "Opodo is going from strength to strength and given the current climate it is great to be part of such a growth industry. The European online travel market is a dynamic and challenging environment and is set to grow dramatically over the coming years. Opodo is delighted to be part of this growth."

Opodo's HR Manager Sarah Constable said, "In the last few weeks, Opodo has recruited around 19 people and is currently recruiting for another 8 positions to help market and develop the network of sites, each of which are individually tailored to each country. This recruitment drive is focussed on recruiting for senior positions in the London headquarters however opportunities may arise in our other European offices over time. Positions include vacancies in the Technology & Marketing departments."

Constable continued, "Recruiting across such a vast range of disciplines in the current climate was an incredible challenge as the number of applications received were generally treble what would be considered an average amount. As Opodo is now an established brand we are finding that our reputation is attracting high calibre applicants direct to the career section of our site"

Other facts about Opodo staffing:

• Opodo staff collectively represent 17 different countries
• Around 85 per cent of its staff have strong travel-related backgrounds; with the rest having a wealth of technical/IT-online-start up and design experience.
• Three quarters of staff speak two or more languages, with several speaking up to seven languages.

Further details about available positions can be found on www.opodo.com. Applications can be made to jobs@opodo.com

Opodo launched its first site www.opodo.de in November 2001, www.opodo.co.uk in January and www.opodo.fr in April of this year. Further sites are planned during 2003 and beyond.

About Opodo

Opodo is an online travel service created by nine of Europe's leading airlines - Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa and Amadeus. Opodo addresses the real needs of today's traveller by offering an unbiased and competitively priced online travel service for world travel, with access to flights from over 480 airlines, 30,000 hotel properties and a worldwide fleet of over 750,000 hire cars, as well as travel insurance.
Opodo will launch throughout Europe during 2002 and beyond.

Further information about Opodo is available at www.opodo.com