Google closes flight booking

The same player announced it with a few lines stating only that flight booking will close from September 30.

According to what is reported by Skift, the reason for the closure of flight booking (Google Flights or Google Flights) is attributable to a decreasing number of users who used Google’s booking tool for flights. Travelers would prefer to book flights with online travel agencies or directly with airlines.

Meanwhile, Google itself announced this with the following note:

Booking on Google for flights will no longer be available from September 30, 2022 in most countries or regions outside the United States. Bookings made before this date will not be affected. For questions regarding your current booking with Book on Google, you can still contact the booking partner in the booking confirmation and Google.

The fear that Google would become the world’s largest agency, therefore, has been averted. Perhaps because, as Skift underlines, some experts saw Book on Google as the company slowly approaching becoming an online travel agency but it never seemed to be that intention. Google earns too much money from travel advertising to want to compete directly with its major partners. Additionally, Google has no interest in managing flight changes and cancellations or providing customer service to stranded travelers.

Google launched Book on Google in 2015 as a way to facilitate bookings for airlines and online travel agencies at a time when many of their mobile websites were not particularly sophisticated.

But the mobile capabilities of partners have improved in the meantime, and Google has stated that it has seen a declining share of flight bookings coming from the Book on Google feature.

Many metasearch sites over the years have tried this facilitated booking type for partner airlines and hotels, but with few exceptions, such as HomeToGo in Germany, this type of functionality has been in decline for years.