Cheapflights announces UK site full relaunch

Cheapflights Ltd. ("Cheapflights" or "the Company"), a leading UK and North American internet media travel company providing flight price search and comparison is pleased to announce the full relaunch of its UK site www.cheapflights.co.uk having successfully completed the Beta phase launched six weeks ago on June 27. The UK relaunch follows the well-received full relaunch of its US site www.cheapflights.com in February following rigorous stress testing there of the new technology platform behind the sites.

Since 1996, the Company has always striven to innovate and provide a cutting-edge service both to its users and to its travel advertising partners.  Cheapflights believes that the very rapid response speed and the major increase in travel data available on the new site will provide viewers with a great user experience starting on the homepage. 

The new site provides new deal filters, easier site navigation, and dozens of other new features that enable unprecedented access to flight deals for those with flexible travel plans and also for those requiring date specific deals.  With a significantly increased library of travel-related proprietary guides plus links to external travel information, consumers will be able to research and plan their travel much faster and more easily.

For advertisers, the new site provides new and more profitable ways to target consumers.   This includes the opportunity to cross-sell via the hand-picked deals such as car hire, accommodation, airport parking etc when users pull up prices for a chosen destination.  Further information is available in the Appendix below.

The new technology behind the site now provides an absolutely common technology platform for all Cheapflights' sites and will greatly facilitate international expansion with its improvement in scalability.

Cheapflights.co.uk’s General Manager, Francesca Ecsery commented: “The new UK website represents so much more than an aesthetic redesign.  The revamp has enhanced both the front and back end of the site, delivering new functionality, rapid ease of access to deals and tremendous additional proprietary content. We believe users will find it to be a highly improved, powerful travel search tool, which is packed with information and all kinds of useful tips and tricks to help prep them for their journey and even help them decide where to visit.  It really is like your own virtual tour guide.” 

Cheapflights' CEO, Chris Cuddy added:  "The rapid transit from Beta to full UK launch is a testament to the success of the significant redesign work and heavy investment in back-end technology over the past year or so carried out by our own technology teams.   This has not only enabled the relaunch of Cheapflights' existing sites but also provides a common technology platform for additional launches.  We expect to launch a European site later this year as part of our strategy to extend our successful flights price search and comparison model internationally."

END

Notes to Editors and Appendix Below

Notes to Editors

Cheapflights Ltd. Cheapflights pioneered flight price search and comparison in 1996 and has been consistently profitable since launch. The Cheapflights flight price comparison model publishes more than one million fares daily from hundreds of sources. This empowers price sensitive consumers to get an overview of flights prices, find the best deals and the companies that offer them. Once a deal is found, the Cheapflights user can click through to a price provider's site or, in many cases, telephone to the provider's call-centre.  Last year more than one million telephone leads were introduced to Cheapflights’ advertisers’ call centres. 

In 2003 Cheapflights launched its successful US site www.cheapflights.com. It is estimated that last year circa £2  billion sales were achieved by advertisers through deals published on our UK and US sites. In 2007 Cheapflights also launched its Canadian site www.cheapflights.ca.

With more than eight million visits globally recorded in January 2008, Cheapflights is a leader in flights deals information and continues to develop its unique and highly successful product.

Appendix to Cheapflights.co.uk Full Relaunch Release August 8, 2008

What does the New Site Do that the Old One Did Not?

1. New site has an enhanced location based search function giving consumers better ways to find the best deals for their chosen type of destination.
   1. Homepage gives immediate access to flight deals for more than 30 popular destinations and to the top ten travel destinations on our travel destination guides library.
   2. For consumers "browsing" for alternative destinations, the new site has a geographical tab enabling consumers to quickly find deals and guides in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
   3. The site remembers the last five destinations searched for and enables consumers to return to a particular destination page deals and its other destination tabs without having to re-enter information.
   4. The destination flight deals page now also has filters for price, and departure/destination airports and as well as flexible date flight deals a date specific search box for the destination.
   5. Handpicked deals for other last-minute travel and deals such as airport parking, hotels, travel insurance and lounges etc. are now easier to find on the homepage.
   6. Home page allows search choice for specific travel dates as well as deals for those with flexibility.
2. Much expanded data capacity and library content with easy-to-find links to “Insider” destination information as well as airline and airport guides and flight information guides.
   1. There are now more than 450 destination information/guides written in-house to assist consumers in their decision making about where to go.
   2. In addition there are airport guides and links to Lonely Planet, Maps, Weather, best time to visit, events and currency etc associated with destinations.
   3. New section on airline guides, and airlines' rules on baggage policy and charges they apply for baggage; check-in and in-flight services.

What does this do for Advertisers ?

3.    Advertisers will benefit from higher quality leads generated by the site, which should lead to higher customer conversion rates. 

1. Consumers will have been able to find much more information about a destination and be better informed about it, thus helping to commit them to a particular resort.
2. The new site provides many additional placements, including home page and destination guides, from where advertisers can promote their deals.
3. Best flight deals from advertisers for a particular destination now displayed on destination guide pages making it easier for consumers to find a deal when they have found a resort/destination they like.
4. The filters on the flight deal pages ensure that users have done more research on Cheapflights, and therefore more qualified when they follow leads to an advertiser.
5. Our handpicked deals can now be placed on flight deal pages, enabling users to access advertisers' deals for accommodation, holiday and car hire products.