As part of its push to gain scale in North America, U.K.-based Skyscanner plans soon to introduce an additional foreign language -- U.S. English.
Scot Carlson, Skyscanner's manager for North America, says Skyscanner currently is available in 23 languages and is working on adding U.S. English as the 24th language in its database.
When U.S. English is launched, presumably Skyscanner.com will see its Car Hire tab becomes just Cars or Rental Cars, hotel check-in dates would be listed as 12-10-2010 instead of 2010-12-10, and departure times will be listed as a.m. or p.m. instead of using 24-hour military time.
The Car Hire language issue, however, involves more than just changing a word here and there because Skyscanner gets it rental car inventory from Dublin-based CarTrawler, Carlson says.
Another language issue that Skyscanner.com, the North America site, faces is that it is geared for both U.S. and Canadian users -- and there are differences in Canadian and U.S. English.
Carlson says Skyscanner will opt to use U.S. English because the U.S. is a larger market than Canada, and Canadians seem more adaptable about language.
At any rate, Skyscanner uses geolocation functionality to direct users to a given country site, and then allows them to make their language choice.
So someone from Hungary traveling in the U.S. would be directed to Skyscanner.com and can choose to view the site in Magyar.
In the future, once U.S. English is introduced, an American traveling in London might be directed to Skyscanner.net, but would be able to opt to view the site in U.S. English rather than British English.
Carlson, who lives in Scotland, but hails from Florida, is currently in the U.S., talking to network and budget airlines, hoping to solidify relationships.
Hopefully, for Skyscanner's sake, they are all speaking the same language.