Amanda Wills, managing director of Virgin Holidays for the last 13 years, is to leave the operator on September 1.
Wills told colleagues this afternoon that she was leaving to “pursue other exciting commercial opportunities”.
Wills said making the decision to depart was “very tough” but she was confident she was leaving the business in great shape.
She said: “After 13 fantastic years in the best job in travel, it feels like the right time to hand the reins to someone else. I shall miss my amazing team around the world, but I leave a very talented leadership group who will continue growing our business and changing the game for good in our area of the travel industry.
“I’m very proud of everything we’ve achieved together in this unique and ever-changing industry, and will look back on my years at Virgin Holidays as among the happiest of my life.”
Wills said she had to do some serious “soul-searching” when making her decision to leave, mainly because of all the people that work for the company.
“There are over 1,500 of them now and it’s going to be very hard to say goodbye,” she said. “But it’s my time to move on and someone else’s time to take over and I have agreed with Richard [Branson] and Craig [Kreeger] to stay until September and help them to find the right successor.”
Wills said the change would also allow her more time to devote to all her charity work. She runs an orphanage in South Africa and is involved in other charities in Liverpool, her hometown.
Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, said: “It’s no exaggeration to say that Amanda Wills is a legend within the industry. Virgin Holidays would not be the strong, innovative company it is today without her leadership.
“She’s created an amazing culture there, driven continual change and improvement from the front, and gained the respect of everyone around her without ever losing her grounding as a girl from Liverpool.
“I’ll miss her sense of humour, vision and energy, and wish her every best wish for the future.”
Craig Kreeger, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said: “Amanda has been a tremendous asset to our business for many years and she will be sorely missed.
“She has been recognised for many of her significant contributions to the travel industry over the years, but for me her biggest legacy remains the amazing team and high performing company she has built at Virgin Holidays.
“I will work closely with Amanda and her team over the next months to identify and introduce a worthy successor. In the meantime, Virgin Holidays is a great company that has remained profitable throughout the recent challenging period for long haul travel, so it remains very much business as usual.”
One of Wills’ senior team said: “Amanda is a huge character and will be hugely missed. People have said that the business wouldn’t be what it is without her and it literally wouldn’t. I have never worked for anyone like Amanda – she is so full of energy and I know she will go on to do amazing things in the future.”
Prior to joining Virgin Holidays, Wills worked for Airtours where she was the first woman appointed to the board. She joined Virgin days after the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Under her guidance, the company has seen turnover double and profits increase four-fold, and bookings have grown to a record of half a million customers per year. Staff numbers have increased to more than 1,500.