Press Release:  Airportr Appoints New Chief Technology Officer to Help Scale its Baggage-as-a-Service Network Globally

SaaS and logistics technology expert Gary O'Connor brings over 20 years of experience to the Airportr executive team as the company expands across the world's airlines and airports 

LONDON - June 26, 2026 - Airportr, the travel technology company that pioneered Baggage-as-a-Service, allowing checked-in passengers to have their luggage collected from their home or hotel and delivered directly to their flight, has named Gary O'Connor as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer. O'Connor will be responsible for Airportr's product and engineering organisation as the company moves toward an AI-native platform and extends its reach across a growing network of airline and airport partners worldwide. 

Throughout his career, O'Connor has built and scaled product and technology organisations for businesses defined by operational complexity. He began in large-scale engineering roles at organisations including IBM, Betfair and the BBC before moving into leadership positions at companies transitioning from an early product to platforms designed for scale. 

A track record in scaling complex logistics technology

O'Connor spent six years as a founding executive at Doddle, where he helped turn a UK parcel delivery network into a profitable, multi-country SaaS platform serving customers including Amazon, Australia Post, M&S and Yamato. He led the technology strategy that supported the company's international expansion and evolution from a UK parcel delivery network into a scalable software business.

Since Doddle, O'Connor has held senior technology leadership roles at Shepper, Lantum and Naveo and led product development at Clippd, a data and analytics platform for the US golf market. Across those businesses, he built partnerships with companies including Microsoft, Salesforce, Garmin, Full Swing and Zebra while helping teams scale products and operations.

"Gary has spent his career building technology for businesses where software and operational complexity are inseparable," said Randel Darby, CEO and founder of Airportr. "His experience scaling Doddle into an international logistics platform gives him a strong understanding of the challenges we solve every day. As Airportr expands across more airlines and airports, his experience building products, teams and platforms at scale will be invaluable."

Airportr's Baggage-as-a-Service model relies on technology that coordinates baggage movement across multiple physical and digital touchpoints, from collection at a passenger's home or hotel to aircraft loading. Building and scaling this kind of operationally complex platform is a challenge O'Connor has tackled throughout his career.

O'Connor's appointment also reflects Airportr's strategic shift towards an AI-native platform as it scales globally, using AI to automate decision-making across logistics, customer operations and marketplace management and optimisation, enabling the company to accelerate expansion across new markets, improve operational efficiency and reduce the cost of growth.

"Airportr is solving a genuinely complex orchestration problem, bringing together software, logistics and airline operations in a way that remains largely invisible to the passenger," said O'Connor. "What attracted me to the company is the opportunity to scale a platform that already has strong product-market fit and to build it as an AI-native business. There's a real opportunity to automate the decisions behind every bag we move, from logistics and customer management to how we deploy in new markets. AI is also changing how engineering teams themselves build and ship software, and I'm excited to bring that to Airportr so the platform gets faster and smarter as it grows."

For more information about Airportr, or to arrange an interview with Gary O’Connor, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.

About Airportr

Airportr, the pioneer of Baggage-as-a-Service, was founded to address a persistent challenge in air travel: transforming checked baggage from an inconvenience for passengers and a cost centre for airlines into a premium, revenue-generating advantage across the travel journey. Built on principles of customer-centricity, reliability, and value creation for all stakeholders, Airportr's solutions are trusted by many of the world's leading airlines, including British Airways, SWISS, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, and Singapore Airlines, alongside a global network of logistics partners. For more information, visit www.airportr.com.