The travel industry was estimated to be at 11.1 trillion US dollars in 2024, accounting for around 10% of the global GDP. This stat alone is enough to give you an idea about how big this market is, and as they say, the bigger the market, the better the opportunities.

The presence of different booking platforms makes the entire industry highly competitive, however, the size of it tells a completely different story. The market is too huge and offers lucrative opportunities for new businesses if they can meet the level of existing aggregators and one-up them with better services and user experience.

And how do you do that? Well, that is exactly what we will understand in this post. In this blog, we will try to identify the main aspects of a travel aggregator platform and learn how you can develop a similar website/app for your own business.

For the sake of this, we will be taking the example of Skyscanner, one of the most successful and popular platforms in the past decade. Without further ado, let’s begin by understanding how to develop a website like Skyscanner!

What Is Skyscanner?

Skyscanner website

Skyscanner is a travel agency and search aggregator that allows a traveler to check booking prices and manage reservations.

Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, this platform has been actively working since 2003 and is one of the top travel aggregation websites. It compares thousands of prices and shows its users the best available option.

In its true form. Skyscanner can be called a complete travel search engine as it allows you to find cheap flights, hotels, and car rental services, simply by shooting your dates of travel. The way it works is quite inspiring for many travel business owners and hence people often want to develop a website like Skyscanner for their travel agency.

Market Overview of Skyscanner and Flight Ticket Booking Platforms

Talking about the market overview of flight ticket booking platforms like Skyscanner, we can find out that these services are popular among travelers and make a significant contribution to the overall travel industry.

If we talk about the online travel market, the widespread use of smartphones and the availability of the internet across the globe have made this market a fast-growing entity, valued at $2,172.8 billion in 2023. With a forecasted CAGR of more than 11% between 2023-2030, the travel industry opens significant opportunities for all the existing flight ticket booking platforms.

The market is booming for flight aggregators as they create value not only for their platforms but also for the listings that they show to their visitors.

What Makes Developing Your Website Like Skyscanner a Good Move?

In today’s day and age, where technology has taken over every aspect of travel it can become really hard for businesses to survive without having an online presence. By developing a site or app like Skyscanner, you can easily reach the masses and simplify the way users interact with your services.

What makes it a lucrative move for your travel business is the fact that it allows you to enter online marketplaces quite easily. Investing in a travel aggregator platform like Skyscanner can help you in the following ways:

What Makes Developing Your Website Like Skyscanner a Good Move

♦ New Revenue Stream

When you launch a platform of your own that allows a user to compare multiple options and then choose the best, you unlock a whole new world of affiliate marketing. If you have a platform that entertains decent traffic and numbers regularly, you can make several affiliate deals and open new revenue streams.

♦ Simplify Booking Process

If you are familiar with the offline way of booking tickets and hotels, you already know how typical it is to manage all the communication. Hence, with a platform like Skyscanner, you can simplify the entire process.

♦ Wider Audience

Unlike offline tour and travel services that have a limited area of service, an online platform helps in reaching international clients. You can easily set your platform to change languages and currencies as per the region it is being used in. Allowing your network to cater to a wider audience.

♦ Business Scalability

If you are planning to scale your current travel business, launching a site like Skyscanner can be a great vertical for your business. You see, not only does it offer you a better market response, but it also enables you options to explore newer markets.

♦ Explore New Markets

As mentioned above, with the proper execution of a travel aggregator, you can easily start exploring newer markets such as hotel bookings, taxis, self-drive cars, etc.

Along with these, the fact that 72% of US citizens prefer making their travel bookings online shows the potential that this market has. Hence, to penetrate the market and become a part of exponential growth, it may be in your best interest to develop a site like Skyscanner for your business. Not to mention, a travel aggregation platform is a vital investment for people who are not into the travel industry but want to penetrate it.

Key Features of Skyscanner

So what makes Skyscanner different from other travel platforms? Well, it is the collection of features that it offers. One of the key factors that make Skyscanner the most popular platform for flight bookings is its ability to show the best prices for the same flight. It has access to thousands of travel platforms, from where it fetches the prices and compares them for your reference.

Key Features of Skyscanner

1. Easy Flight Search Mechanism

Skyscanner offers an interesting user interface that simplifies the searches for users. Even if a person has logged on to the platform for the first time, they can easily navigate through the flight search, straight from the landing page.

2. Date Flexibility

One of the key features that Skyscanner offers is date flexibility. This means that a person who is looking for flight prices but does not know what date they want to book the flight can easily check prices for weeks and months forward. This gives the user enough flexibility to choose a date based on the fare that day.

3. Convenient User Experience

Skyscanner offers both a website and an app for its users. The idea is to give everyone a choice of usage. If you are someone who prefers using a PC to book your flights or hotels, you can use Skyscanner’s website and if you are more comfortable in making your bookings on the go, you can use an app like Skyscanner.

4. Expanded Services

There are a bunch of different services available on Skyscanner. For instance, if you are planning to travel and book a flight from the platform, it can also recommend hotels as well as car rental options. This way it helps you plan your entire holiday on a single platform.

5. Informative Guides for Travellers

Another key feature that helps Skyscanner appeal to a wider audience is the availability of informative guides for travelers. The platform offers significant insights into a travel destination in the form of interesting and informative blogs. A user can interact with these blogs and learn more about the places they want to visit.

All these features along with the platform’s ability to aggregate prices from all across the internet in a matter of seconds make it an ideal platform for many users. If you too are into the travel industry, you must develop a website like Skyscanner to boost your revenue.

Advanced Features to Make Your Travel Platform Standout

Now you may be wondering how you make your application or website better than Skyscanner, well, features are the backbone of any platform. Hence, by integrating advanced features, you can help develop a travel app that stands out from the existing platforms.

Some of the intuitive features that you should go for while designing a platform like Skyscanner are:

Advanced Features to Make Your Travel Platform Standout

  • Intelligent Itinerary Curator

This can be a unique feature that you offer by implementing AI and machine learning algorithms. With simple GPT integration on your platform, you can allow your user to generate an itinerary for their upcoming trip. All they have to do is share their duration of travel and destination. With AI engines booming, this can be a standout feature of your platform.

  • Destination Recommendations

Another interesting feature that you can offer is predictive destination suggestions. Based on the types of destinations a person travels to, you can give magic recommendations. For instance if someone on your platform searches for a destination that has a lot of beaches, you can accumulate information about other destinations with beaches and suggest it to the user.

  • Authentic Review System

One of the key factors that most travel apps take lightly is the review system that they implement. You should create a review system that is driven by the community which gives more ways to interact with the reviewer. For instance, if you find a review with 5 stars, there should be a provision that allows you to question the reviewer about why they have rated it high or low.

  • Offline Functionalities

Features that make travel easy for a user are offline functionalities. Sometimes while traveling the network can be an issue. It happens mainly in international travel where local networks are not available. If your travel platform can offer an offline mode that allows access to booking information and map directions to reach the destination, it can be a game changer for the industry.

  • Data-Driven Personalizations

Another interesting feature that you can introduce is personalized services. For instance, if a person has booked with you before, you can analyze their preferences and accordingly personalize the experience for them. This can be integrated throughout the platform, from preferred airlines to preferred modes of payment.

Other than these features, creating a unique user experience that attracts a user and is easy to use can boost your chances of success. Not to forget, you should explore more and more platforms to bring them to your aggregator with exclusive deals as it may help you catch more eyeballs for your platform.

CTA-1-Want to develop a website like Skyscanner in your budget

Cost to Build a Platform Like Skyscanner

If we talk about investment, the cost to develop a website like Skyscanner typically ranges from $50,000 to $150,000. You see, various components are to be designed individually. Each requires a dedicated team of matter experts and hours of work.

You see, creating a platform similar to Skyscanner is not a one-man job. The different components in the entire process comprise:

Cost to Build a Platform Like Skyscanner

  1. Core Functionalities: For any online search and booking platform there are a set of features that must be included, even in the basic version. These functionalities focus on them.
  2. Customized Features: These are advanced features that you plan to integrate/build in your app to make it stand out from the available options.
  3. Development: There are different types of development you can opt for. If you develop a website like Skyscanner you can use a CRM to ease your process. However, if you are planning to build an app, you need to choose if you want to go for native app development or a hybrid one. The cost of each type varies and hence you should choose as per your requirements and budget.
  4. Backend: This involves the server side of your application where you choose your database, integrations, etc.
  5. Maintenance and Quality Assurance: Lastly, you need a proper team of testers and quality assurance experts to help you identify the bugs and resolve them.

As per the current market rates, here’s a quick breakdown of the Skyscanner-like app’s development cost –

Component Cost (Range)

Core Functionalities

$10,000 – $25,000

Customized Features

$5,000 – $20,000

Development (Web/App)

$20,000 – $40,000

Backend Development

$10,000 – $30,000
Quality Assurance/ Maintenance $5,000 – $15,000

The range varies as per the requirements. Hence, it is recommended that you do your research beforehand or simply ask your tour and travel app developer to guide you through the entire process.

Factors That Determine the Cost

The cost discussed above is never going to be exact as several factors determine the final expense. You see, the core of any app or website development majorly depends on 3 Whats –

  • What is your vision?
  • What technology do you want to use?
  • What app development company do you opt for?

After defining these 3-Whats, you will have a framework for your app. However, when we talk about the cost of building a travel app specifically, some of the determining factors include:

Factors That Determine the Cost

1] Development Platform

The type of development environment and approach you choose for your website/app is a crucial factor. If you are OK with borrowing technologies rather than creating a website from scratch it may cost you less.

Similarly for an application, if you are going for native development for both iOS and Android individually, it may cost you more than a hybrid development.

2] Development Complexity

There are two tiers of development complexities. One is the basics in which you get the basic application/website developed with nothing out of the box. However, if you go for customizations, then the complexity increases to the advanced level, taking the cost of development a bit higher.

3] Development Team Location

Where your team is located plays a crucial role in the development cost. If you have hired someone from a country where your currency is weaker, the development cost may go higher. To minimize the cost you should look for developers either in your region or somewhere else where your currency is stronger.

4] Cost of Integrations

The type of third-party integrations you choose also affects the overall cost of development. The more APIs you purchase for integration, the higher the cost. Not to forget for every integration different components are needed to be tweaked.

5] Design

Last but not least, the design elements that you introduce in your website/app can impact the cost of development. This solely depends on the complexity of the designs that you expect to be implemented.

Be it a travel app development or hotel booking app development, the basics remain identical for each of them. This is also why the majority of flight booking sites like Skyscanner have easily integrated hotel bookings on their platform.

Hence, whenever you decide to develop a website/app like Skyscanner make sure you weigh in all the factors properly as it will help you determine the estimated cost accurately. The cost is a key point of concern for many businesses.

Hence you should examine the available bunch of travel app development companies and make the decision accordingly.

Steps to Develop a Website/App Like Skyscanner

To start with the development of your website, you need to follow the steps given below:

Steps to Develop a Website_App Like Skyscanner

Step 1: Identify the Components

To develop a website like Skyscanner, the first step is to identify the core components your site requires. In the case of a website like Skyscanner, you are going to need 3 things –

  • A front for maintaining user aesthetics.
  • A framework to define how your website functions.
  • An API for pulling up flights and hotel data on your website.

Step 2: Market Research

After identifying the components, you should invest time in researching the market and understand the usual market practices. Research about your industry, how travel aggregators work, what type of user interfaces are common, what are the gaps in the market that you can fill, etc.

Step 3: Choose the Correct Tech Stack

After your research, you will have a bunch of features that you need in your application. As per the application’s requirements choose a technology stack that will be used to develop it. If you are unsure, you must connect with app development professionals as they can guide you better and help you choose an optimized technology stack.

Step 4: Design a Rough Framework

Before directly jumping into the development process, you should sit down with your developers and create a rough framework of how your platform will function. This way you have an idea of what the final product will look like, making it easier for the developer to define a goal.

Step 5: Development

Let the experts develop all the components of your website. Allow the experts enough time to work on different aspects of the process such as your backend, frontend, UX/UI, etc. This is the longest step of them all as it takes time to design modules and make them work properly.

You need multiple APIs integrated into your website if you plan to develop a website like Skyscanner.

Step 6: Testing

After the development process is complete, your Skyscanner clone website goes into testing. These are the steps where all the modules developed by the experts are tested for bugs. All the functionalities are tried multiple times with different use cases to ensure that the final iteration of the product provides a bug-free experience to the users.

Step 7: Deployment & Maintenance

With all these steps, you will be able to develop the first iteration of your website like Skyscanner. Keep in mind that the website will require proper monitoring and maintenance. After the successful launch of your Skyscanner clone website, you can further take the next step and start planning on introducing your app like Skyscanner.

How Long Does It Take to Make a Platform Like Skyscanner?

Since Skyscanner, as a platform, offers both a website and an application, replicating the exact concept can sometimes take a lot of time.

While it will depend on the development professionals you hire and the time you spend on your research, it can take you anywhere from 1-6 months to develop a website like Skyscanner. This range can further exceed depending on the complexity of your website.

On the other hand, if you are specifically looking to develop an app like Skyscanner, it will take you 1000+ hours of development time. Now, depending on the service and developers you hire, you can estimate the time depending on the work culture of the company.

For instance, It will take approximately 4 months if a team of developers works for 8 hours a day. However, that is not possible hence the estimated time to develop an app like Skyscanner ranges between 6-12 months, in some cases even more than 12 months!

Monetization Strategies for a Travel Website Like Skyscanner

A travel and tourism platform works slightly differently when it comes to monetization. You see, when we talk about other apps like OTT platforms, Music Streaming Apps, and Social Media Apps, all of them offer a paid subscription which is the major chunk of their revenue.

However, for platforms like Skyscanner, where you need more and more traffic to come, you cannot rely on a subscription model only.

Some of the core monetization strategies for a travel app/website like Skyscanner include:

Monetization Strategies for a Travel Website Like Skyscanner

➤ Affiliate Model

As a travel aggregator, you can easily earn a commission on every booking made through your application. This falls under the affiliate model, where your aggregator platform includes a third-party listing, and when any of your users book with the third party via your link, you get a decent commission. Skyscanner is one of the biggest earners when it comes to affiliate models.

➤ Advertisements

Allowing other websites to utilize the ad space on your webpage or application is another way you can monetize your application. There are several advertisement programs that you can use to start monetization. For mobile apps, you can always use interstitial ads for better chances of earning.

➤ Promotions/Collaborations

You collaborate with various other players in the travel industry to offer your users additional deals. This can be a basic promotion of an experience at a certain destination or positioning a travel agency on top in exchange for monetization. Several listing platforms function on a similar format however keep in mind that you should label any manipulated positions as SPONSORED.

➤ In-App Purchases

Since you have an option of showing ads to your users, you can also introduce in-app purchases that unlock an ad-free experience for your users. Not only that, you can introduce some advanced features that a user can unlock after paying a premium. These features can be anything from an AI itinerary generator to early access to discounted prices.

Other than these direct monetization methods, you always have the option to invoke Google Adsense for automated ads and traffic monetization. You can also use the generated data for monetization by sharing it with other players who could use it.

However, keep in mind that if you plan to use user-generated data, you must obtain proper permissions from the user along with an iron-clad user data-sharing agreement.

CTA-2-Experts are available to assist you with tour and travel app development!

How Nimble AppGenie Can Help?

Now that you have read everything about Skyscanner and know what it takes to develop a similar platform like Skyscanner, you can easily make up your mind and make the decision. If you are wondering where to find the best Skyscanner clone app development service, then your hunt stops here.

Nimble AppGenie, with a team of expert developers and years of experience in travel app development, can guide you perfectly with the app development process. These professionals have worked with similar projects several times and hence have the perfect expertise for building a website/app like Skyscanner.

The best part is that they don’t simply replicate a product but allow you to customize it and are open to all types of ideas that you may have in mind. So what’s stopping you now? Reach out today and start your journey towards the sky of success!

Conclusion

The opportunities that come with having a platform like Skyscanner are endless. The existence of such a platform has revolutionized the way travelers book their flights for their next adventure. However, there’s still a lot of potential in the field, considering the market is growing exponentially, opening doors for more and more players to join and earn from it.

By simply creating a robust Skyscanner-like platform, you can easily kick-start your venture or if you are already from the travel industry, it can be a great vertical to expand. An app like Skyscanner can help you take your business online as it offers multiple ways to generate revenue. All you have to do is choose the right development team!

FAQs

The cost to build a website like Skyscanner typically ranges anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 depending on various factors such as the development platform you choose, customizations you would like, the technology you decide to use, etc.

A website like Skyscanner tends to make things a lot easier for people looking to make flight and accommodation bookings for their trips. The key features of Skyscanner include an easy flight search mechanism, date flexibility, convenient user experience, etc.

To build a travel aggregator app, it might take you anywhere from 6 -12 months depending on the team and intricacies of development. If you are only going for an app with basic functionalities, it can be developed in 3-6 months as well. However, the more complexities are introduced the higher the development time.

Skyscanner works big-time on an affiliate model, where it takes commissions from airlines and properties on every sale that they make through the website. Other than these there are other monetization strategies that you can implement.