Executive Management

John Elieson

Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer

As Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer, John has strategic oversight of Travelport’s growth strategy, sales organization and M&A agenda.

Connect

Leadership team

What’s your favourite travel destination in the world?
Anywhere with my family. Some of our favourites are Rio de Janeiro, Sydney and London

Sunrise coffee or sunset cocktail?
Definitely a sunrise person

Thinking back to your first work trip, where did you go and why?
Early in my career I worked for American Airlines training airport passenger services agents. My first business trips were flying with trainees from DFW to Chicago one day every two weeks so they could practice working in a different airport. One of the first times I did that everyone in ORD’s international terminal was ushered to the side while a crew filmed a family frantically running through the Gateway to the World. I asked the name of the film and was told it was the new John Candy film. It turned out to be Home Alone.

Fancy restaurant meal or homecooked comfort food?
Homecooked comfort food

If I wasn’t part of Travelport’s SLT, I’d be…
Teaching high school math and coaching

View full bio

John Elieson currently serves as Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer for Travelport Worldwide, a leading travel commerce platform providing distribution, technology, data and other solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

Mr. Elieson is a former president, and current Director, of Deem, a wholly owned subsidiary of Travelport. Previously as president and CEO of Radixx International, a TA Associates company that hosts airlines around the world, John orchestrated a company turnaround and successful exit in 2018. Prior to that John spent 30 years with Sabre and its former parent company AMR American Airlines in a variety of functional areas including operations, software development, data sciences, consulting, business development, sales & account management, marketing, portfolio management, pricing & revenue management, business intelligence and strategy.

John was part of the executive team put in place to turnaround Travelocity in 2002 and won a Franz Edelman Award as co-author of “Travelocity Transitions to Retailer” that was published in 2007. John has served on boards of businesses, universities, municipalities and non-profit organizations. In 2023 John was named by Business Travel News at one of the world’s “Top 25 Most Influential.”

John is an Eagle Scout, served a two year volunteer mission in Brazil, was an All-American collegiate athlete and competitive Ironman. He earned an MBA from Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. He and his wife have four grown children and live in Florida where they are active members of their community and church.

Some of our favourite travel destinations are Rio de Janeiro, Sydney and London

John Elieson

Leadership team