Skyscanner creates first voice flight search for Amazon’s Echo

A voice integration flight search has been developed by Skyscanner for Amazon’s cloud-based Alexa service for Echo.

Image via George W. Bailey / Shutterstock.com

A voice integration flight search has been developed by Skyscanner for Amazon’s cloud-based Alexa service for Echo.

It will allow users to ask Alexa to search Skyscanner for flight travel options through Amazon Echo – the hands free device that connects to Alexa to provide information, answer questions, play music and read the news.

Skyscanner is the first travel search engine to integrate into Alexa.

The conversational search, which leads the traveller through a series of questions to guide Alexa to the proper flight pursuit, was demonstrated at the Amazon Appstore Developer Summit in London this week.

Although not available for general use yet, consumers will be able to ask Alexa to find them a flight as easily as manually searching on any mobile device Skyscanner claims.

David Low, developer advocate and engineer at Skyscanner, said: “Voice integration is an important feature for the travel industry, and the digital world in general.

“Conversational integration is appearing in everything from wearables to cars to mobile apps, reinforcing that conversation and messaging are fast becoming mainstream.

“We expect voice products to be a major driver for this mainstream adoption.”

At Skyscanner we try hard to embed ourselves into new technologies as they emerge. Alexa and the Amazon Echo give us a platform to bring the digital travel buddy conversation to life.