Kayak is considering the development of further options for airlines to display products and ancillary offers.
A product called Airline Lounge could enable consumers to see a page dedicated to an airline’s products and services via Kayak’s mobile applications.
Kayak, which was acquired by Priceline last November, stresses Airline Lounge is not in development and may never see the light of day.
The metasearch specialist currently enables limited options on the website and mobile applications, which appear as inline advertisements such as the examples above, and help the airline differentiate themselves.
Kayak’s marketing chief Robert Birge says usability comes first and any further merchandising options will not be introduced if they get in the way of the travel planning and booking process for consumers.
Sam Shevat, the company’s director of mobile business development revealed details of Airline Lounge at the Amadeus Airline eCommerce and Mobile conference in Madrid earlier this month where he said:
“The user would opt in to a full screen dedicated to a single partner which would help them to learn about more of the merchandising opportunities available to them. This is not in production.”
Shevat also said 54% of mobile flight bookings for the company are one-way with the majority being for short-haul routes.
NB: Disclosure – author was a guest of Amadeus which supplied accommodation/travel for the event.
