/ View CommentsTweetJust in case it wasn’t clear Google is going into the business of selling airline tickets.
It’s starting small with Cape Air, an independent New England based regional airline.
Were proud of the achievement made by our teams to build the next generation in travel technology, says Cape Air Chief Executive Officer Dan Wolf.
The websites for Cape Air and Nantucket Airlines now have new booking software under the hood powered by Google owned ITA Software, one of the “Ten Most Innovative Companies in Transportation,” according to Fast Company.
As you may know, Google acquired ITA Software last year after a round of regulatory scrutiny and a big stink raised by Google competitors (as they banded together with Googles arch nemesis Microsoft on the FairSearch Coalition).
Last fall, Google launched its Flight Search feature based on the technology from the acquisition.
Google Search provides many options for customized search, using Boolean operators such as: exclusion , alternatives , and wildcard .
It made sure to point out that ITA’s Cape Air system is “built to scale to support airlines of all sizes.”.
Our customers expect the best from Cape Air, and by investing in technology, our passengers and employees will benefit by faster and easier handling of booking and changing reservations.
If it’s going to be a future payment platform, it needs to have its users’ credit cards stored (like Apple does).
By becoming a convenient point of sale for something, Google can get its users to add credit cards to their accounts.
Booking flights is a great business for Google to get into, because there’s lots of friction in the process.
It’s just a search ad business for now, between desktop and mobile flight search and Google Maps inside airports.
But when Google scales the flight booking system it built for Cape Air, it will be able to give users the option to make their travel plans using Google all the way.
Mark Jones is a business journalist based in Melbourne, Australia. Mark has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Mark spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
