Google Flights is an online flight booking search service which facilitates the purchase of airline tickets through third-party suppliers. It was launched by
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
in 2011 following a buyout. It is now part of
Google Travel
Google Travel, formerly Google Trips, is a trip planner service developed by Google for the web. It was originally launched as a mobile app on September 19, 2016, for Android and iOS, which was shut down on August 5th, 2019. The features are pa ...
.
History
In April 2011, the
United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division
The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice that enforces U.S. antitrust law. It has exclusive jurisdiction over U.S. federal criminal antitrust prosecutions. It also has jurisdic ...
approved Google's $700 million purchase of
ITA Software
ITA Software is a travel industry software division of Google, formerly an independent company, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Jeremy Wertheimer, a computer scientist from the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Co ...
. On September 13, 2011 Google launched Google Flights, which used algorithms gained from this purchase.
Features
An innovation of Google Flights is that it allows open-ended searches based on criteria other than the destination; for example, a user may search for flights within a range of times and a budget and be offered various destination choices. Alternatively, a user can select a destination, and Google Flights will calculate every price for each day of the next 12 months, visualized in a graph or table. This allows users to easily spot the cheapest date to fly to the destination.
Google Flights also enables its users to calculate the climate impact of their flight, but in July 2022, this tool changed the way of calculating the climate impact of flights. All the global warming impacts of flying except the CO2 emission were excluded from the calculation, halving the calculated climate impact of each flight. This move faced a backlash from environmental activists and the scientific community.
Response
The service was immediately compared to competitors such as
Expedia
Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, an American online travel shopping company based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, a ...
,
Orbitz
Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Background
Origina ...
,
Kayak.com
Kayak (styled as KAYAK) is an American online travel agency and metasearch engine owned and operated by Booking Holdings.
Kayak's website and mobile apps are currently available in over 18 languages and more than 30 countries, including the Un ...
, and
Bing
Bing most often refers to:
* Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer
* Microsoft Bing, a web search engine
Bing may also refer to:
Food and drink
* Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread
* Bing (soft drink), a UK brand
* Bing cherry, a varie ...
.
Shortly after the site launched, Expedia testified to the
Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee that Google failed to keep a promise to rank Google Flight listings below the listings of competitors in a Google search.
International availability
* Albania
* Armenia
* Australia
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Belgium
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Brazil
* Bulgaria
* Canada
* Chile
* Croatia
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Georgia
* Germany
* Greece
* Greenland
* Hungary
* Iceland
* India
* Indonesia
* Ireland
* Israel
* Italy
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Macedonia
* Malaysia
*Mauritius
* Mexico
* Moldova
* Montenegro
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Nigeria
* Norway
* Peru
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russia
* Serbia
* Singapore
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Turkey
* Switzerland
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* United States
References
External links
*
{{Travel ticket search engines
Online travel agencies
American travel websites
Travel ticket search engines
Flights
Computer-related introductions in 2011