Skyscanner

Skyscanner is a flight search engine from Edinburgh. Gareth Williams, Bonamy Grimes and Barry Smith founded it, and it grew from flight comparison into a metasearch for flights, hotels and car hire. Skyscanner shows prices from airlines and travel agencies and sends users on to the seller to book, so the contract is usually with the airline or agent and not with Skyscanner itself.

Features

• Price comparison for flights with flexible dates and whole-month views
• Search for hotels and rental cars
• Saved searches and price alerts in the app

Ownership and limits

In 2016 the Chinese company Ctrip, now Trip.com Group, bought Skyscanner for about 1.4 billion pounds, the largest travel technology acquisition in Europe at the time. Skyscanner stayed headquartered in Edinburgh and carries a notice for a non-European parent. Because it is a metasearch engine, fees and baggage rules are set by the seller and should be checked before booking.