Skyscanner
Encyclopedia
Skyscanner is a flight search engine
that allows users to browse for flights via price and location. Additional tools such as fare graphs, allow users to compare flight prices of any given route over a month period, or the price of weekend flights from any given city.
The site is multilingual, offering flight searches in 23 languages including Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Spanish and Japanese.
Skyscanner does not sell flights directly; instead, the site can be used to find the cheapest deal for a desired route after which users are automatically transferred to the airline or travel supplier’s website to make their booking directly.
Users can search for flights without having to enter specific dates or destinations, creating a very flexible flight search platform. Skyscanner’s proprietary indexing technology means that search results can be found much more quickly than with meta-search engines.
In addition to its flight search engine technology, Skyscanner also features regular news items from the travel and flight industry as well as travel tips for consumers.
The company is based in Edinburgh
, Scotland, and also has an office in Singapore.
professionals, Gareth Williams, Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes, after one of them was frustrated by the difficulties of finding cheap flights to ski resorts.
Skyscanner version 1 was developed and released in 2002. In 2003, the first employee was taken on to assist with site development. In 2004 the Edinburgh office was opened and by 2011 the company employed over 100 staff.
The site began life listing European budget airlines only, but has since expanded its search index to include most major European carriers, including BA
, KLM and Virgin Atlantic Airways
. It has also expanded its geographical reach to include carriers to, from and in the US, Canada and other parts of the world.
In 2011, Skyscanner acquired the door-to-door travel site Zoombu
for an undisclosed sum.
The site has been well received by the UK media; in an "Online Cheap Flight Finding Experiment" run by The Guardian
newspaper, Skyscanner was praised for finding the lowest flight fares and for "beating much bigger operators such as Expedia
and Travelocity
". The site was also listed in The Independent
newspaper's articles - "The Ten Best: Travel Sites". and "101 Really Useful Websites". The Daily Telegraph
named Skyscanner as one of the 9 best travel websites.
The market has expanded and many other companies provide similar services (either competing or collaborating) like Kayak.com
, Dohop
, Travelocity
, Orbitz
, CheapOair
, OneTravel, Mobissimo
.
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
that allows users to browse for flights via price and location. Additional tools such as fare graphs, allow users to compare flight prices of any given route over a month period, or the price of weekend flights from any given city.
The site is multilingual, offering flight searches in 23 languages including Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Spanish and Japanese.
Skyscanner does not sell flights directly; instead, the site can be used to find the cheapest deal for a desired route after which users are automatically transferred to the airline or travel supplier’s website to make their booking directly.
Users can search for flights without having to enter specific dates or destinations, creating a very flexible flight search platform. Skyscanner’s proprietary indexing technology means that search results can be found much more quickly than with meta-search engines.
In addition to its flight search engine technology, Skyscanner also features regular news items from the travel and flight industry as well as travel tips for consumers.
The company is based in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland, and also has an office in Singapore.
History
The company was formed in 2001 by three ITInformation technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
professionals, Gareth Williams, Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes, after one of them was frustrated by the difficulties of finding cheap flights to ski resorts.
Skyscanner version 1 was developed and released in 2002. In 2003, the first employee was taken on to assist with site development. In 2004 the Edinburgh office was opened and by 2011 the company employed over 100 staff.
The site began life listing European budget airlines only, but has since expanded its search index to include most major European carriers, including BA
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
, KLM and Virgin Atlantic Airways
Virgin Atlantic Airways
Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited is a British airline owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Singapore Airlines...
. It has also expanded its geographical reach to include carriers to, from and in the US, Canada and other parts of the world.
In 2011, Skyscanner acquired the door-to-door travel site Zoombu
Zoombu
Zoombu is an online door-to-door journey search engine for Europe. Users can enter their starting and destination addresses and the service searches thousands of routes across combinations of transportation including flights, trains, ferries, and ground transfers including taxis, driving and car...
for an undisclosed sum.
Skyscanner tools (Skytools)
Skyscanner offers a suite of free online tools, collectively called 'Skytools' that allow users and webmasters to download and integrate Skyscanner flight information into their own website, personal page or desktop. These come in the form of a 'Flight Map' API (an interactive flash map displaying airports on a world map), a 'WhoFlies' API, which displays airlines for any given route and a 'Flight Search' API which gives live prices.Market share and popularity
Skyscanner currently receives over 10 million visitors per month. Skyscanner has won various awards including the Best Flight Comparison 2010 from Travolution.The site has been well received by the UK media; in an "Online Cheap Flight Finding Experiment" run by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper, Skyscanner was praised for finding the lowest flight fares and for "beating much bigger operators such as Expedia
Expedia
Expedia is an Internet-based travel website based in the US with localised sites for 21 countries...
and Travelocity
Travelocity
Travelocity is an online travel agency and wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in March 2007...
". The site was also listed in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper's articles - "The Ten Best: Travel Sites". and "101 Really Useful Websites". The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
named Skyscanner as one of the 9 best travel websites.
The market has expanded and many other companies provide similar services (either competing or collaborating) like Kayak.com
Kayak.com
KAYAK is a technology company providing online travel tools through its global family of websites and mobile applications. Started by cofounders of Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, KAYAK allows users to compare information from hundreds of other travel websites in one display when booking travel...
, Dohop
Dohop
Dohop is a travel search engine website based in Reykjavík, Iceland originally founded to aggregate and link low cost flight connections. In 2005 dohop launched the world's first flight planner for low-cost airlines and later expanded it to include all scheduled flights worldwide, amounting to 660...
, Travelocity
Travelocity
Travelocity is an online travel agency and wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in March 2007...
, Orbitz
Orbitz
Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. is an Internet travel company headquartered in the Citigroup Center in Near West Side, Chicago, Illinois. Through its primary web site Orbitz.com, Orbitz Worldwide enables travelers to research, plan and book a broad range of travel products, facilitating 1.5 million flight...
, CheapOair
CheapOair
CheapOair is an online travel company established in September 2005. The company has created a branded budget travel site for US and Canadian travelers. This site offers airfares on all major and smaller airlines in North America, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, Pacific, Indian...
, OneTravel, Mobissimo
Mobissimo
Mobissimo is a travel search engine website based in San Francisco, California. It allows consumers to compare prices on flights, hotels, and car rentals. It aggregates the results from over 180 online travel agencies, consolidators, and ticket vendors to show a side-by-side comparison of the...
.