Skyscanner Rolls Out AI Discovery Tools and Live Flight Tracking in Summer Product Release

Skyscanner is betting that natural-language search is the next front in travel discovery — a signal of where metasearch is heading as AI trip-planning tools reshape how travellers shop, and worth watching for anyone who depends on Skyscanner as a distribution channel.

The company, which says it helps more than 160 million travellers a month compare flights, accommodation and car hire, announced its summer product release on 1 July with two new AI tools in beta and updates to several existing features.

Two AI tools in beta

Explore with AI lets travellers search for flight deals in natural language — for example, "help me find cheap flights to Japan in December" — instead of entering fixed destinations and dates. The tool returns personalised recommendations and side-by-side destination comparisons covering flight pricing, weather, flight duration and "destination vibes", plus AI-generated insights such as "September is typically 24% cheaper than December". It is live in English-speaking markets on mobile web, desktop and tablet, with expansion planned. In an experiment with 14,000 English-speaking travellers run between 28 April and 5 May 2026, Skyscanner says 60% of users clicked through to view flight options generated by the tool.

Road trip planner, in beta on desktop in all markets, builds personalised driving itineraries around a car-hire pickup location, travel dates and a chosen route style — Scenic Route, Fastest Route, Cultural Exploration, Adventure Trip or Relaxing Getaway — and recommends car hire options to match.

Updates to existing features

• DROPS, the app-only deals feed launched last year, now surfaces up to 822% more deals a day, with Skyscanner scanning 100 billion prices for fares that have fallen 20% or more in the past 7 days.
• Flight Tracker adds departures, arrivals, flight status, gate, terminal and baggage-belt details for millions of flights.
• Stays, the rebranded accommodation platform, has grown from 3.5 million to more than five million properties, spanning hostels, hotels, campsites, capsule stays and farm getaways.

"We're experimenting with how AI can make every stage of the journey simpler and more intuitive, from discovering new destinations to road trip planning," said Bryan Batista, CEO of Skyscanner, adding that the company's goal is "to support travellers in making confident decisions and creating trips that are right for them."

The release keeps Skyscanner in step with the broader industry shift toward conversational discovery, where OTAs and metasearch players alike are racing to keep search traffic that might otherwise start in general-purpose AI assistants.