Metasearch Tech Is Turning Skyscanner Into a Branded Airline Storefront
Photo Credit: Workers at Skyscanner's Edinburgh headquarters are optimistic about the future of travel distribution. The Scottish-based, Chinese owned company sees itself becoming the center (or "centre", or "中心") of distribution. Skyscanner
Skift Take
Skyscanner is becoming an online shop-window for airlines, providing a branded experience that's similar to the airline's own sites. Behind this move is a technological upheaval that's scrambling commercial alliances.
Lots of companies publish whitepapers as thinly disguised marketing. But a new whitepaper from Skyscanner, the travel price comparison company, has actual value. The paper outlines a business view that we haven't heard a major travel booking company articulate before.
Skyscanner's paper — A Vision for the Future of Airline Distribution — says that consumers will soon find that visiting metasearch websites will look sort of like a collection of branded airline sites.
The paper focuses on "instant booking," where travelers buy their plane tickets without leaving the sites or apps of metasearch companies like Skyscanner.
Take a look at these two screenshots. The first is of VirginAustralia.com's booking page, and the second is of Virgin Australia's transaction page on Skyscanner. Already today they have a similar look and feel. Over time, the same functionality will be available in both places.
While Skycanner chief executive Gareth Williams did discuss t
