Skyscanner is looking for a new London headquarters, as the online travel agency looks to bounce back from a challenging 18 months.
The flights, hotels and car rental specialist has been out viewing offices in the West End in recent weeks, and is understood to be targeting between 40,000 sq ft and 45,000 sq ft of space.
It comes after international travel bans hobbled Scotland-based Skyscanner’s business model during the pandemic, leading it to cut 84 jobs at its head office in Edinburgh along with one-fifth of its global workforce.
However, with holidaymakers going abroad again this summer, the company has seen a fresh surge in demand.
Now, Skyscanner is looking to move out of its flexible office space at 338 Euston Road, NW1, which is run by British Land’s flex operator Storey.
It currently leases 45,000 sq ft at the site, meaning that it is not actively looking to downsize despite the vast majority of London occupiers moving to a hybrid working model.
The travel company’s search makes it the latest West End occupier to emerge with a major requirement in recent months, as confidence slowly returns to the London leasing market amid a lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.
Total office take-up across central London rose to 1.9m sq ft in the second quarter of 2021, 49% above the first quarter and more than double the activity seen in the final quarter of 2020.
Skyscanner was founded in 2003 and bought by Chinese travel agency giant Trip.com Group in 2016 for £1.4bn, in the largest tech travel deal in Europe. It employs around 1,500 people across eight offices worldwide, including in Barcelona, Singapore and Tokyo.
To send feedback, e-mail alex.daniel@eg.co.uk or tweet @alexmdaniel or @EGPropertyNews
