Google to launch price comparison site for airline tickets

Google is planning to launch a price comparison tool for airline tickets, according to budget airline Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary.

According to O'Leary, his company has already shared ticketing information with Google, which plans to provide only a price comparison, after which it will redirect users to third-party sellers.

"Google will say, 'Here are the fares,' then you click straight through to Ryanair or someone else. It blows everyone else out of the water," said O’Leary.

Google wants to get the pricing information from all airlines and will not charge them for the service, instead it will generate revenue through advertising.

"They don't want to have a limited or biased search. They want to be able to say they've screened all of these airlines on all of the routes. They need to find who has got the lowest airfare on these routes... and that's us," he said.

Google at present has a booking system it launched in U.K. in March.

"We already have relationships with a number of airlines across the world but are always looking to improve the results by signing deals with more," according to a Google representative. "We have nothing new to announce at this stage."

[CNET] [The Independent]