Cheapflights

Cheapflights

Type of site	Subsidiary
Available in	English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Dutch, Czech, Finnish, Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian and Chinese
Founded	1996; 29 years ago (1996) U.S. company: March 21, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-03-21)
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Founder(s)	John Hatt David Soskin
Key people	Hugo Burge (Chief executive officer)
Industry	Travel
Parent	Booking Holdings
URL	www.cheapflights.com www.cheapflights.co.uk www.in.cheapflights.com

Cheapflights is a travel fare metasearch engine. The website is part of the Kayak.com subsidiary of Booking Holdings.

Its websites publish flight prices, and compare prices from suppliers, including major airlines, through tiny travel agents.^[1]

Agents advertise on the Cheapflights websites and are charged on a pay-per-click basis for users who link through to their websites.^[2]

History

Cheapflights was founded in 1996 by John Hatt.^[3] That year, its first website, www.cheapflights.co.uk, launched.^[4] In 2000, ex-ABN Amro banker David Soskin and Hugo Burge led a buyout of the website from its founder.^[3][5][6] The website was the first in the UK to launch the pay-per-click online advertising remuneration model.^[4]

In May 2003, the US website, www.cheapflights.com, was launched.^[4] In 2006, the website handled £1 billion in annual travel sales.^[7] In April 2007, the Canadian website, www.cheapflights.ca, was launched.^[4] In October 2008, the first non-English website, www.cheapflug.de, was launched.^[4] Co-founder David Soskin resigned as chief executive to become vice-chairman that same year.^[3] In 2009, the Australia / New Zealand website was launched.^[8]

In January 2011, the company launched mobile websites.^[9] In March 2011, the company acquired momondo, a rival online travel agency.^[10][11] The two websites and brands were kept independent of each other.^[12] It also discontinued Zugu.^[13] In October 2014, Great Hill Partners, a private-equity firm, invested £80m for a majority stake in the company that owned Cheapflights and momondo, valuing it at £132 million.^[14][15] In February 2015, the South African website was launched.^[16] In June 2015, the United Kingdom website was launched as a metasearch engine.^[17] In June 2016, Cheapflights added search capability within Facebook Messenger.^[18] In October, Cheapflights reorganized some of its staff.^[19] In July 2017, Cheapflights and momondo were acquired by Booking Holdings for $550 million.^[20]

References

1. Dunlop, Michael. "David Soskin Interview – Serial Entrepreneur and Investor". Income Diary.
2. Tedeschi, Bob (28 August 2005). "Finding Air-Fare Gold in the Internet Maze". The New York Times.
3. Kleinman, Mark; White, Dominic (9 March 2008). "Cheapflights co-founder hands over controls". The Daily Telegraph.
4. "Cheapflights Launches New Website for Australia and New Zealand cheapflights.com.au" (Press release). Business Wire. April 15, 2009.
5. Hayhurst, Lee (10 October 2011). "'Everything to play for': Hugo Burge on Cheapflights' present and future". Travolution.
6. Savage, Rachel (18 July 2014). "Cheapflights' owner flies in a £150m sale". Haymarket Media Group.
7. Martinson, Jane (30 October 2006). "Diller plans to buy up British travel websites". The Guardian.
8. "Cheapflights Launches Australia/NZ Website" (Press release). Scoop. 15 April 2009.
9. Schaal, Dennis (January 14, 2011). "Cheapflights gets inspirational and mobile". Phocuswire.
10. Wauters, Robin (29 March 2011). "Cheapflights invests in travel meta-search site Momondo". TechCrunch.
11. Fox, Linda (12 November 2012). "Momondo name to carry Cheapflights into non-English speaking territories". Phocuswire.
12. Schaal, Dennis (14 May 2014). "CEO Interview: Cheapflights and Momondo Attempt a Dual-Brand Strategy". Skift.
13. May, Kevin (March 29, 2011). "Cheapflights invests in Momondo, axes Zugu". Phocuswire.
14. "Great Hill Partners Acquires a Majority Stake in Momondo" (Press release). Great Hill Partners. 17 October 2014.
15. Armstrong, Ashley (17 October 2014). "Cheapflights owner receives £80m cash boost from Boston-based investor". The Daily Telegraph.
16. "Cheapflights launches in SA". Traveller 24. February 24, 2015.
17. May, Kevin (24 June 2015). "Goodbye, deals - Cheapflights switches to metasearch after 19 years". Phocuswire.
18. May, Kevin (June 14, 2016). "Cheapflights puts flight and hotel search into Facebook Messenger". Phocuswire.
19. Whyte, Patrick (14 October 2016). "Momondo Group Makes Changes at Cheapflights Operation". Skift.
20. "The Priceline Group Completes the Acquisition of Momondo Group" (Press release). PR Newswire. 24 July 2017.