Virgin Atlantic Cargo has appointed Ryan Ellis as its head of global accounts and Ray Wood as its regional sales manager for the UK.

According to Virgin, Ellis [left] succeeds Steve Hughes, who left the airline in April 2017. Ellis joined the airline in 2010 and was most recently head of GSA territory management. He was previously regional sales manager for continental Europe.

Wood [right] previously worked at IAG Cargo, where he was responsible for global key accounts, covering the UK, Ireland and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. He has worked at Lufthansa Cargo for 14 years in a number of sales roles, including UK sales manager, and has experience working in freight forwarding.

“In his earlier sales role, Ryan helped to deliver a significant increase in our European business so he brings great experience to the very important post of head of global accounts,” said Steve Buckerfield, vice president of sales at Virgin Atlantic Cargo. “As a newcomer to the airline, Ray brings a wealth of experience gained over 30 years in the air cargo industry and is also highly respected by customers, especially in the UK market. Ryan and Ray take up their new roles at a very positive time with our global volumes up 7% for the first five months of this year and our business from the UK up 13% year-on-year. We wish to thank Steve Hughes for the great job he has done in developing customer relationships and strengthening our reputation with many of our regional and global customers. I also want to acknowledge the outstanding support and performance of Lisa Forshaw, our account manager in Manchester, during her secondment to London to cover the post of UK regional sales manager while we went through the recruitment process for the role. This just reinforces what a great team we have.”