Australia-New Zealand online accommodation service Wotif is aiming to unsettle some of the biggest players in the region's flight search and booking sector with the launch of WotFlight.
The new service launched today and is initially targeting domestic flights in and around Australia, with plans to expand into regional and long-haul flights over time.
Another flight search and booking system wouldn't ordinarily capture huge amounts of attention, but the pedigree and experience behind the Wotif mothership is likely to make its new rivals in the airfare area take note.
Wotif.com launched in 2000 as an online distressed hotel inventory service, but quickly extended its booking time and global reach to challenge some of the biggest names in the Australasian region.
It is now one very few businesses to dominate a market instead of Expedia-owned TripAdvisor in accommodation rankings on Hitwise, courtesy of its running start and strong brand in Australia.
Wotif is currently almost 2% ahead of TripAdvisor in market share and 4% and 5% ahead of Booking.com and HotelClub respectively.
The new WotFlight brand is being touted as a "natural progression" for the wider group by its CEO Robbie Cookie.
Inevitably the two brands will work closely alongside each other as visitors to the new site will be offered accommodation vouchers on the sister site.
The fighting talk has already started, with brand manager Megan Magill claiming supremacy over content and functionality against its new rival in the flight search sector before the site even launches.
Webjet, Flight Centre and the Australian divisions of Expedia and lastminute.com currently top the Hitwise rankings in the agency categories.