Partners in place for fly.com launch in Europe

Travelzoo’s fly.com has a number of partnerships already in place for its UK and European launch following the US versions exit from its beta version this week. Chris Loughlin, Travelzoo’s MD for Europe who will oversee fly.com in the region, told Travolution: “We are closer to launch in Europe. The team is busy conducting pre-release…

Travelzoo‘s fly.com has a number of partnerships already in place for its UK and European launch following the US versions exit from its beta version this week.

Chris Loughlin, Travelzoo’s MD for Europe who will oversee fly.com in the region, told Travolution: “We are closer to launch in Europe. The team is busy conducting pre-release testing and we have secured partnerships with a host of airlines and online travel agents.”

Fly.com is a vertical search engine for flights, which launched five months ago in the US. In June, more than 2.4m searches were carried out on the site, an 85% increase on Mays figures.

Fly.com’s general manager Brian Clarke said: “After only five months of operation, we are exiting our beta release with a large and growing community of users.”

Travelzoo this week also announced that its Spanish newsletter has picked up 250,000 subscribers just over a year after launch.

Over 70 travel businesses have advertised, including a lot of UK-based businesses, including long-haul tour operators and cruise businesses.

“We had quite a lot of bookings for a UK-based Maldives operator who advertised London departures to our Spanish audience,” Loughlin said. “In the old days of media, this would never have happened.”

He added: “Spanish subscribers who are buying packages and cruises that depart from the UK are using low cost flights to get to London.”

At the same time as British businesses are selling to Spanish customers, American hotel chains are using the UK newsletter to attract British visitors.

An upscale resort in Las Vegas recently sold 4,200 room nights to the UK audience via Travelzoo, Loughlin said.

Meanwhile, Travelzoo UK recently launched events and entertainment on the site after six months of testing.

“It opens up a new potential content and revenue stream,” Loughlin said. “The response from subscribers has been excellent.”