The world wide web can be your oyster

The transition of Indian passengers booking tickets through a local agent to using the internet has been comparatively slow, but is gaining momentum because of the internet boom  in the country. “The South Asian market has traditionally been an 'agent' market, which was more offline – like booking tickets on the streets – but in the recent years things have changed. More and more treavellers are now discovering the magic of the internet and are moving online for travel bookings. They have realised that they can find more information there and also save themselves a lot of time,”says Ewan Gray, director, Skyscanner.com.

The online travel industry now has a new player in the market, with Skyscanner's entry. The company is based out of Edinburgh, Scotland and they also have an office in Singapore, which is now open to Indian travellers. “Eight-nine of the top ten global routes preferred by passengers are in Asia. There are new airlines entering the Indian market, and travellers want more,” says Gray. The market is crowded with various websites offering everything, right from great hotel deals to planning your whole trip to cheap flight tickets; so what is different about this service, you might wonder. “Skyscanner came about when the local airline industry started evolving in Europe and a central source for travellers to get information about all airlines was missing. The three co-founders were frustrated with that,” he says. “So, we came up with this plan of wanting to build something that would be an excel spreadsheet of the whole travel industry!”

So how does this simplified excel travel sheet work? “A unique feature of our website is that we give people the option of not filling in their end-destination or their specific travel dates. You just type in Mumbai and chose a month, then in the destination drop down choose 'everywhere'. So it shows you different cities that you can fly to, flights for those and also the corresponding prices,” Gray explains. “This feature comes in handy two ways — if you want to plan a vacation and are not clear where to go, you can just check our bar graph, see the prices for all destinations and then accordingly choose! And if you have friends and family abroad then you can pick the right time to visit them without breaking the bank.”

Gray observes that most Indians use the internet through their phones, very few access it through their laptops or desktops. “35-40% of our traffic comes from our mobile apps, and the number is growing everyday. There are apps for all mobile platforms, latest addition being the Blackberry app,” Gray reveals. “Frequent travellers can tag two routes, and the rates for those will constantly keep streaming on your phone which makes it possible for you to book a flight as soon as you see a feasible rate. It is like getting news headlines on your phone!” he smiles.