Cheapflights.co.uk, the UK’s leading flight comparison website, today celebrates its tenth anniversary. Pioneering independent online travel price comparison in 1996, Cheapflights.co.uk has become the UK's leading international internet flight search company, with three million monthly UK unique users. It is the only British flight search comparison website that has successfully launched in the US.
Cheapflights.co.uk publishes over a million deals on its website and benefits from relationships with hundreds of travel companies, many of which would find it hard to reach consumers without the visibility Cheapflights.co.uk affords them. The Company is committed to providing the best and most comprehensive information on flight prices. It remains the UK’s favourite flight price comparison website by offering a simple, fast and intuitive design and by supplying additional travel information via its weekly newsletter and its award-winning travel news site, Cheapflights News: http://news.cheapflights.co.uk
Originally the brainchild of John Hatt, ex-travel editor of Harpers and Queen, Cheapflights.co.uk was launched in October 1996 from an attic in Wandsworth, London. Five years later in 2001, its success was recognised by the readers of the Good Web Guide when it was named Britain’s favourite travel website and sixth favourite website overall.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary in October 2006, Cheapflights.co.uk already has had a successful year behind it including being named one of the “365 brilliant websites” by Webuser magazine. In addition, it was awarded Best Website in the Travel category at the .net awards and highlighted in the Guardian’s list of the top 30 travel websites that “changed our world”.
Cheapflights News has been included in The Times list of top 108 travel sites in the UK, just seven months after it was launched. Away from the travel arena, Cheapflights.co.uk has also won a place in The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 league table of top British technology companies for the third year in a row. It was also featured in Media Momentum UK’s top 50 Most Dynamic Media companies 2006.
David Soskin, CEO, says: "Cheapflights.co.uk prides itself as an innovative technology leader. We have always been at the forefront of price comparison. We are committed to making our users’ journeys cheaper and easier and are incredibly proud of our roots. We look forward to continuing to change to keep up with a changing marketplace over the next ten years"
David continues: “I predict that the next ten years will see exciting developments for the travel industry as a whole and specifically online travel. I believe this will result in the following trends…
Continuing internet hypergrowth
Blogging becoming more prevalent
Increasingly personalized websites
More targeted and relevant reviews
Even cheaper flights
China, Brazil and India becoming enormous inbound and outbound travel markets
Continued expansion of the low cost airline model
More diversity in travel websites with real specialisation
Continued consumer empowerment (e.g. EasyJet’s recently introduced ticket flexibilty)
More diversity of different airline models (BA versus RyanAir, JetBlue versus SouthWest)
Maps, Google Earth, Mash ups and Video adding to the richness of website content”
Notes to Editors
Cheapflights Ltd. Founded in 1996 and profitable since launch, Cheapflights is the UK’s leading UK flight price comparison web and pioneered the travel price comparison model in the UK and also introduced pay-per-click in the UK in 2000. Cheapflights does not sell any travel products. Each day, it displays over one million constantly updated prices supplied by hundreds of travel partners worldwide. These deals can be accessed online or by telephone direct with the advertiser from links or information on our site. This makes Cheapflights one of the most comprehensive independent publishers online of flight and other travel deals available.
Leading online measurement company Hitwise has described Cheapflights as ‘the UK’s favourite travel price comparison site’. Hitwise's statistics also show Cheapflights as being the UK's top vertical search and comparison site for the past 15 quarters. The Company's unique user numbers globally reached 5.25 million in January 2006.
Cheapflights estimates that it generated travel product sales of over $pound;1 billion for its advertising partners in 2005. These advertisers read like a Who’s Who of the travel world - ranging from British Airways, Thomson, Expedia, Travelocity and Thomas Cook to specialist operators like STA Travel , Mark Warner and Iglu.com.
Cheapflights is one of the few British internet companies successfully to establish an operation in the USA with Cheapflights.com. Launched in May 2003, with 2 million unique users a month it is already in the top 13 USA travel sites. The Company has launched UK and USA "Flight News" blog sites These are now major interactive communities which inform and assist travel consumers.
Cheapflights' independent status as an online travel price search and comparison and travel news site makes it a natural starting point for finding travel deals and up-to-date travel industry information.
Travel Web Sites:
www.Cheapflights.co.uk; www.Cheapflights.com
"Flight News" Blog sites:
UK News: http://news.cheapflights.co.uk
US News: http://news.cheapflights.com
