Further evidence in the world of intermediaries that umbrella companies are seeing the value adding metasearch to the armoury as Jetcost gets snapped up by Bravofly.
The Bravofly Rumbo Group bought the metasearch brand Jetcost for an undisclosed fee last week, in a bid to bolster the brand's presence in France, Italy and Spain where Jetcost has an established presence.
Jetcost will continue to be run independently within the Bravofly portfolio of companies which also includes the Viajar, Hotelyo and Viaggiare brands.
The acquisition follows Bravofly's move to buy fellow online travel agency Rumbo in November last year for a cool Euro 74 million which also coincided with Axa Private Equity investing some Euro 20 million in the business.
Rumbo was previously co-owned by Amadeus and Telefonica, Spain's largest telecomms service, with both deciding to offload their interests in thesite in 2008.
In 2011, Bravofly claimed to have Euro 250 million in turnover, with combined annual revenue post-Rumbo acquisition expected to hit around Euro 1 billion per year.
Vravofly executive chairman, Fabio Cannavale, says:
"In the last few years, meta-search engines such as Jetcost have gained a key role as traffic generators for OTAs competing in the fast-growing online travel industry."
Jetcost currently compares around 250 airlines (some direct, others via OTAs) and hotel booking sites.