Skyscanner

Overview

Skyscanner is an Edinburgh-headquartered travel metasearch engine founded in 2003. It was acquired by Trip.com Group (then Ctrip) in 2016 for around 1.4 billion pounds, becoming the international metasearch arm of the largest Asian travel group.

Business Model

Skyscanner aggregates flight, hotel and car rental prices from hundreds of OTAs, airlines, hotel chains and rental companies. It earns revenue mainly through cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition referrals to its booking partners, with a growing share of "Direct Booking" transactions handled directly within Skyscanner via partner technology.

Market Position

Skyscanner is one of the largest global travel metasearch brands alongside Kayak, Trivago and Google Flights. It is particularly strong on flight search in the UK, Europe and APAC, where its "Everywhere" exploratory search and price alerts are widely used by leisure travelers planning trips with flexible destinations.

Key Facts

Skyscanner is best known for its "Everywhere" search (cheapest destinations from a given origin), "Whole Month" calendar pricing view, multi-stop and open-jaw flight search, and a clean, ad-light user experience. Within Trip.com Group it provides a major source of inbound travel demand and a global brand presence in markets where Trip.com itself is still building awareness.