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Skyscanner Reviews

Edinburgh, Scotland

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Skyscanner Limited is a leading global travel metasearch engine and travel agency headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. Established officially in 2003 by co-founders Gareth Williams, Barry Smith, and Bonamy Grimes, the company was born out of personal frustrations with the tedious process of searching multiple airline websites to find cheap flights to ski resorts. Today, Skyscanner operates as an independent subsidiary of the Trip.com Group (formerly Ctrip), which acquired the company in December 2016 in a landmark deal valued at approximately 1.4 billion pounds (1.75 billion dollars). The company is under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Bryan Batista, who assumed the role in June 2025. The core functionality of Skyscanner centers on its proprietary travel search aggregation platform, which collects, collates, and compares prices for millions of travel options worldwide. While initially focusing heavily on European budget carriers and commercial flights, Skyscanner has significantly diversified its portfolio to offer comprehensive search and comparison tools across three primary travel verticals: flights, hotels, and car hire. The platform operates on a dual-sided marketplace model, connecting hundreds of millions of global travelers with a vast network of over 1,200 commercial partners, including major commercial airlines, online travel agencies (OTAs), hotel chains, and car rental companies. Skyscanner utilizes a cost-per-click and referral-based monetization model, driving highly qualified consumer traffic directly to its partners' booking systems. It also provides a Direct Booking service, enabling seamless, native transaction experiences directly on the Skyscanner app or website while allowing travel providers to retain customer data. In recent years, the company has integrated advanced travel technology solutions, introducing AI-powered features like Vibes and Savvy Search to deliver personalized inspiration and natural-language query processing for users. As a highly globalized enterprise, Skyscanner serves more than 100 million monthly active users across more than 65 countries. Its digital platform and highly-rated mobile applications are accessible in over 30 languages and support 70 distinct currencies. To manage its extensive international footprint, the company employs approximately 1,500 professionals across a network of global offices situated in key strategic hubs, including London, Miami, Singapore, Beijing, Barcelona, and Shenzhen. Beyond commercial growth, Skyscanner places a strong emphasis on sustainability and inclusive tourism; it is a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on climate action in tourism and regularly features carbon-emission insights and accessibility tools like its Empathy Lab to help travelers make informed, responsible, and equitable travel decisions.