Kayak eyes agency deals to coincide with Europe expansion

Kayak is to broker at least two major online travel agency deals in the UK in the coming months as part of plans to aggregate more fares and availability to users. The push will coincide with plans to launch in four new territories by the end of August and recruit a dedicated managing director for…

Kayak is to broker at least two major online travel agency deals in the UK in the coming months as part of plans to aggregate more fares and availability to users.


The push will coincide with plans to launch in four new territories by the end of August and recruit a dedicated managing director for the entire European operation, Travolution can reveal.


The UK site currently only online travel agency airfare feeds from ebookers and other Orbitz Worldwide sites, such as cheaptickets.com.


Kayak officials have stressed that the existing exclusive deal it has in the US with Orbitz Worldwide to provide airfares into meta search results will not extend into Europe.


Details of the deal in the US were not disclosed to Travolution but a spokeswoman said the international roll out with just OWW sites is due to the “existing relationship with OWW and it was technically easy to extend that partnership in Europe.


The company is expected to launch in the Netherlands and four Scandinavian countries by the end of August.


Spearheading the European push will be a managing director for the region. Business development director Annie Wilson currently runs a small European team from London.


Another five to six people will be joining the organisation in the coming months, a spokeswoman confirmed.