"The perfect tool for those who need to know precise flight times, routes and availability from anywhere, to anywhere else."
Cheapflights Ltd., the leading UK and US internet travel media company, is pleased to announce that it has made a strategic investment of an undisclosed sum in the Icelandic global flights planner, dohop ltd ("dohop.com"). Cheapflights will be represented on the dohop.com Board.
The dohop.com free website enables travellers to research available flight routes and scheduled departures and arrivals worldwide. It facilitates journey planning and is particularly helpful for finding unusual flight connections.
Dohop.com offers an excellent complementary offering to Cheapflights' award-winning websites Cheapflights.co.uk and Cheapflights.com.
Dohop.com is a technology company that offers software solutions and marketing services to the travel industry. Like Cheapflights, dohop.com pioneered a wholly new consumer service in internet travel . Where Cheapflights was the first to provide online flight price search and comparison from a comprehensive database, dohop.com pioneered online global flight planning.
Founded by Frosti Sigurjonsson in 2004, dohop.com operates the world's first flight planner which is free to consumers. The website covers scheduled routes and includes low cost airlines. Search results provide links to airlines' and travel agency websites where the user can then book flights directly. In addition to the public flight planner, dohop supplies airline websites with dedicated flight planners.
This investment is the latest in a series of pioneering moves by Cheapflights, one of Britain's most successful websites. Cheapflights invented flight price comparison on the internet in 1996. In 2003 it was the first British internet company successfully to launch in the USA. Always profitable, the company's sustained hyper-growth has been funded consistently from cash flow. The strength of Cheapflights' business model is reflected in the fact that the company has never raised external funds and has no debt and is in a position to make such investments.
Commenting, Hugo Burge, Cheapflights’ Vice Chairman and Head of International said:
"Dohop.com's technology establishes the third generation in real-time availability travel search. This follows the launch of online travel agencies ("OTA's") in 1996, and the so-called 'Metasearch' sites in 1999. Using innovative 'Ajax' functionality, dohop.com now provides a quantum leap in consumer experience. Like Cheapflights, it is a unique and ground-breaking product. For dohop.com this is in offering a direct and simple window into increasingly complex airline schedules and worldwide connections.
He added: "As one of the two oldest established travel websites, we at Cheapflights believe that our own experience in building an international web business will help provide the management expertise, industry contacts and consumer focus to help drive the future world growth and success of dohop.com. This is a perfect tool for those who need to know precise flight times, routes and availability from anywhere to anywhere else..."
Frosti Sigurjonsson, CEO of dohop.com said:
"Cheapflights is a tremendously successful travel company and we are excited to have them backing our young venture. We look forward to tapping into Cheapflights' expertise in helping dohop.com reach its global potential."
Notes to Editors - About The Business Models
Cheapflights www.cheapflights.co.uk
Cheapflights pioneered flight price search and comparison in 1996. The Cheapflights flight price comparison model publishes over a million fares daily from hundreds of sources. This empowers price sensitive consumers to get an overview of flights prices, find the best deals and the companies that offer them. Once a deal is found, the Cheapflights user can click through to a price provider's site or in many cases to the provider's call-centre. It is estimated that last year circa £1 Billion sales were achieved in the UK alone by our advertisers through deals published on our site.
With over 5.25 million unique users globally a month, Cheapflights is a leader in flights deals information and continues to develop its unique and highly successful product.
Dohop www.dohop.com
Founded in 2004 dohop ltd develops software solutions and marketing services for the travel industry. In 2005 dohop launched the world's first flight planner for low-cost airlines and later expanded it to include all scheduled flights worldwide. The dohop.com flight planner is free to use. It provides comprehensive and very fast global access to over 660 airlines schedules, including over 100 budget airlines. This enables users to instantly build a flight itinerary from and to virtually any airport in the world within seconds. Unique features include being able to mix and match different low cost airlines, offer a multitude of currencies and display the website in a variety of languages.
dohop.com has been recommended by travel editors of major media including CNN.com, the Times.co.uk and holds the Travel Mole Web Awards 2006 for best travel technology.
dohop's technology also powers custom flight planners on airline websites, airport sites and general travel sites.
Dohop site features include:
More than 660 airline itineraries
100+ low-cost airlines
Finds connections with low-cost airlines
Fast results: under 3 seconds
Traces flight route on world map
Advanced filters and sort
Live price checks for 300 airlines
Links to airline and flight booking sites
Send e-mail with results
