Skyscanner believes that the lines between direct and indirect distribution are blurring and is ramping up its facilitated booking strategy as a result.
In a white paper, which reads like a manifesto for the future of metasearch, Skyscanner highlights some factors driving the evolution of distribution. In simple terms, consumers are changing how they plan and book a trip while airlines in particular have changed how they distribute inventory, prompting a rethink in how Skyscanner, which sits in the middle, responds to both.
Hugh Aitken, Skyscanner's commercial director, told Tnooz that the old "binary" approach to distribution - airline dotcom as the direct channel, any booking which touches a GDS as indirect - has morphed into a "spectrum" with airline distribution taking place at various points between the two.
For metas such as Skyscanner the opportunity is "facilitated booking" - giving users the chance to complete their bookings within Skyscanner, using an airline-branded booking path, interface and product set which closely mirrors the experience the customer would get at the airline dotcom.
The obvious reference point here is NDC, and the paper talks up Skyscanner as "the only global metasearch [site] to have been recognised by IATA with Tier 3 implementation of the New Distribution Capability (NDC).
But the new world order of metas is about more than an XML messaging standard. Skyscanner believes that the natural progression of facilitated booking is to give its airline and OTA partners "a shop-front of sorts" on Skyscanner.
The message in the paper is clear:
"The future...is more than the simple facilitation of the booking. It will offer airlines the opportunity to brand their experience more fully within the search and booking funnel, allowing for strong ancillary upsell and control over brand messaging."
Talking through the paper, Aitken said that the shop-front concept would come into the booking path once the user had selected the airline from all the search results.
"So the user will see all the relevant results in our display and will only enter the storefront once they have chosen which airline to continue their booking with...It is vital that users trust the results we present and we don't favour one airline over another."
The paper talks about how chatbots, voice search and social media are changing the distribution landscape, all in the context of consumers expecting to be able to engage with travel suppliers using whatever hardware or channel they chose.
The paper notes:
"As we enter this decisive era, where on-the-go services and mobile screen sizes take on a heightened importance, being part of a dynamic, brand-optimised online marketplace capable of catering to travellers on all devices is more vital than ever."
Aitken noted that, on a global basis, around 60% of Skyscanner's traffic comes from mobile devices with some material difference in usage patterns between markets. He said that Skyscanner is learning all the time about not only how best to make sure its integration with airline and OTAs works globally but also how it can optimize its partners' presence on Skyscanner.
The paper also talks about Skyscanner as a "marketplace" - somewhere buyers and sellers meet to do business. It is an established offline and online concept but one Skyscanner thinks needs updating.
"Our vision for the future is collaborating with airlines in delivering our version of the supplier managed marketplace to travellers worldwide. We want to bring airline products on our site as close to the direct experience as possible, with carriers controlling their products and brand while benefitting from our traffic, and audience, across that range of devices."
In the same way as the lines between direct and indirect are blurring, so too it seems are the lines between meta and a marketplace.
The future of Skyscanner has been a hot topic ever since it was bought by Ctrip for $1.75 billion last November. Ctrip has some experience of the meta to marketplace evolution via Qunar, although Qunar was shifting away from pure-play meta towards its marketplace model before Ctrip took it over in 2015.
Ctrip also has some experience of playing the long game. For now, Skyscanner is operating independently from the mothership, but over time Skyscanner's meta/marketplace conundrum will be as interesting as the current conversation around direct/indirect distribution.
Click here to see the paper in full.