Google India's Flight Search set to shake up sector

Google India on Tuesday announced rolling out its long-awaited launch of Flight Search, a product to make planning and booking of air travel hassle-free. Google rolled out Flight Search in 2010 in the United States after acquiring ITA Software. In India, it has teamed up with Goibibo to roll out this service.

Talking to Deccan Herald, Google India Travel Partnership Manager Venkat Chandramoleshwar said, “Travellers can now easily find and compare the best flights on Flight Search and can book their flights on Goibibo, one of the blue partner book buttons featured on Google.”

A traveller can click the ‘search flight prices on Google’ link in the search results page (SERP) after doing a flight search in the Google search box or by navigating directly to Google.co.in/flights. It will help users book tickets and plan their itinerary directly from Google.

The Google blogpost says, “Our booking links point to airline websites only. We’re working to create additional opportunities for other partners in the travel industry as well,” says the post.

According to Google sources, the company will be exploring advertising opportunities within the page to showcase products and services from other relevant partners.
According to Supreme Aviation Inc President and CEO Ameet Agarwal, Google’s Flight Search will reduce time for air travelers.

“Now travellers will have to go to either airline company or other travel booking websites for booking air tickets. These tools allow for booking, but makes travel planning difficult. Also they can’t get information on all available flights on one route. But Google helps them to get an overview of all the flights to one route and then compare the rates for their journey,” he said.