Cheapflights has stuck rigidly to its price comparison model for over a decade but it turns out that the UK-based firm, which has established successful websites in the US, Australia, Canada and elsewhere in recent years, is diving into metasearch at last.
Chris Cuddy will reveal his company's surprise move in a session at the PhoCusWright conference in Orlando later today.
At this stage the company is remaining tight lipped as to exactly how it will move into what is already a busy metasearch arena, countries it will target, technology strategy and any associated marketing campaign.
A spokesman says only the following:
"This development is ongoing and the site will be launched when the company is confident about the robustness and quality of the site meeting the needs of both suppliers and consumers."
What isn't clear is whether Cuddy and the team will attempt to integrate metasearch into its existing Cheapflights brand or launch an entirely new platform and brand.
In its existing and now well-established markets, Cheapflights will face significant opposition in the shape of Bing Travel, Kayak, Sidestep and Mobissimo in the US and TravelSupermarket and Skyscanner in the UK.
Both countries have also recently seen the launch of metaesearch engines from Travelzoo and TripAdvisor in the shape of fly.com and the review giant's flight search engine respectively.