Cheapflights Limited, the UK's profitable and successful travel deal price comparison site, is pleased to announce record traffic figures for July and August 2004.
Its combined August UK traffic figures for its flight price comparison site Cheapflights.co.uk, together with its package holiday deal site Cheapholidaydeals.co.uk, launched in January this year, and its global Cheapaccomodation.com site, doubled to an estimated 2.1 million unique users based on internal WebTrends log files. This surpassed the previous record achieved in July when externally audited unique user numbers provided by ABCe showed 1.98 million unique users, the most conservative measurement of traffic numbers.
According to Hitwise, the independent internet monitoring company, Cheapflights was the 7th highest ranking site within its Travel Agencies category (August 2004) and is the highest ranking price comparison site for flights. Hitwise also reveals that that more users save this site to favourites than any other site in the top 10 and that in this category 'cheap flights' is the most searched for term. In Hitwise’s all Travel sector for August - which includes 6300 rail, airline, maps and other travel related web sites - Cheapflights has more than 1% share of all traffic.
In addition its US departures flight price comparison site Cheapflights.com achieved record unique user traffic figures of 413,000 estimated from internal WebTrends log files. Launched 15 months ago, the site achieved profitability in under twelve months and, from a standing start - in just over a year - has hit traffic levels that its UK parent took six years to achieve.
Commenting, Chief Executive David Soskin said:
"The travel industry is still emerging from a difficult time last year. However, the Internet is becoming ever more popular with consumers. Hence, Cheapflights sites' ability to search millions of deals and bring together some 1.3 million deals on one site from over 700 suppliers for easy comparison is clearly striking a chord with British and Irish travellers. There are masses of bargains to be found in flights, package holidays and accommodation. These offers change every day and consumers understand that it is the Internet, rather than traditional media, that allows them to identify their preferred travel deal from to this ever-changing menu of travel deals. The rapid rise in traffic of Cheapholidaydeals.co.uk in the UK and of Cheapflights.com in the USA demonstrates the public appetite for well-designed, fast and consumer-friendly sites enabling users to compare travel bargains very easily on one site."
* 1.98 July 2004 Unique Users Externally Audited by ABCe
Notes to Editors
Founded in 1996, and profitable since launch, Cheapflights.co.uk pioneered the travel price comparison model in the UK. Each day, Cheapflights displays over one million fares on flights, holidays, short breaks and accommodation, from over 700 travel partners. This makes Cheapflights the most comprehensive directory of travel deals available and a natural starting point for travel. Leading online measurement company Hitwise describes Cheapflights.co.uk as ‘the UK’s favourite travel price comparison site’; and the Company's unique user numbers support this, reaching over 2,000,000 unique users in August 2004 (source: WebTrends).
The company estimates that it will generate travel product sales of over £525 million for its more than 700 UK partners this year. And these advertisers read like a Who’s Who of the travel world - ranging from British Airways, Thomson and Lastminute.com to specialist operators like Barwell Travel, Journey Latin America and Serenity Holidays.
Additionally, Cheapflights is one of the few British Internet companies successfully to establish an operation in the USA with Cheapflights.com. Launched in May 2003, it is already in the top 25 US travel sites (source: Hitwise USA, Travel Agents Category) and heading for similar popularity.
The company also operates the highly successful global accommodation website Cheapaccommodation.com and launched a similar site for the package holiday market - Cheapholidaydeals.co.uk - in January 2004. Cheapholidaydeals, the only major UK internet travel site to launch in 2004, won the WebUser Gold Award and was runner-up in the travel category for the New Media Age effectiveness awards.
In 2004 Cheapflights won The National Business Award, South East Region, for the "best growth strategy" category.
