Google has quickly put its $700 million acquisition of ITA software into use by launching its own flight search tool. Going head-to-head with other online travel sites, the tool provides customers an additional choice for booking flight tickets online.
Google Flights Search
The tool provides quick listing of flights with options to narrow down the list based on number of stops, price, time of departure, airline and connecting airport. Two cool features include a fare calendar with lowest possible fare and a slider chart that enables the customer to filter out expensive and longer flights.
Customers can select a specific flight and book it through the specific airline’s website. I guess, Google will get a cut for bringing in the customer.
Currently, only flights within the United States are listed. Listing of international flights is not supported yet. Also, I noticed that not all flights from the list can be booked. I noticed that flights from Southwest, AirTran and Virgin America, though listed, could not be booked.
Google still has some catching up to do with other travel sites especially Kayak. But, if history is of any guide, Google can quickly ramp up its efforts (think what happened to Mapquest) and challenge the online travel booking sites soon. That is the very reason Expedia, Travelocity and the like opposed the ITA deal fearing anti competitive moves from Google. But the Justice Department approved the deal with some conditions: Google should continue to license the ITA products to other companies with reasonable terms; Google should not use the competitively sensitive data collected from ITA’s customers.