Cheapflights is a travel fare

metasearch engine A metasearch engine (or search aggregator) is an online information retrieval tool that uses the data of a web search engine to produce its own results. Metasearch engines take input from a user and immediately query search engines for results. ...

. The website is part of the Kayak.com subsidiary of

Booking Holdings Booking Holdings Inc. is an American travel technology company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and based in Norwalk, Connecticut, that owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines inclu ...

. Its websites publish flight prices, and compare prices from suppliers, including major airlines, through tiny travel agents. Agents advertise on the Cheapflights websites and are charged on a

pay-per-click Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a search engine, website owner, or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked. This differs from more t ...

basis for users who link through to their websites.

History

Cheapflights was founded in 1996 by John Hatt. That year, its first website, www.cheapflights.co.uk, launched. In 2000, ex- ABN Amro banker David Soskin and Hugo Burge led a buyout of the website from its founder. The website was the first in the UK to launch the

online advertising Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

remuneration model. In May 2003, the US website, www.cheapflights.com, was launched. In 2006, the website handled £1 billion in annual travel sales. In April 2007, the Canadian website, www.cheapflights.ca, was launched. In October 2008, the first non-English website, www.cheapflug.de, was launched. Co-founder David Soskin resigned as chief executive to become vice-chairman that same year. In 2009, the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

website was launched. In January 2011, the company launched mobile websites. In March 2011, the company acquired momondo, a rival online travel agency. The two websites and brands were kept independent of each other. It also discontinued Zugu. In October 2014, Great Hill Partners, a

private-equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

, invested £80m for a majority stake in the company that owne
Cheapflights
an
momondo
valuing it at £132 million. In February 2015, the South African website was launched. In June 2015, the United Kingdom website was launched as a metasearch engine. In June 2016, Cheapflights added search capability within

Facebook Messenger Messenger, formerly known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the client application of Messenger is currently available o ...

. In October, Cheapflights reorganized some of its staff. In July 2017, Cheapflights and momondo were acquired by

for $550 million.

References

{{Travel ticket search engines Booking Holdings British travel websites British companies established in 1996 Hospitality companies established in 1996 Internet properties established in 1996 2017 mergers and acquisitions Travel ticket search engines Companies based in London