[London, ENGLAND] Discount travel site
Europebyair.com announced
Thursday that several major European airlines have agreed to
offer their discount airfares via its service.
Members of the so-called “Qualiflyer Group” — an inter-European
airline alliance — are now offering discounted tickets
through the site. Among them are Swissair, Sabena, Crossair,
Tap Air Portugal and Lot Polish Airlines.
Unlike all the other major European travel specialists,
Europebyair.com is aimed primarily at non-European
travelers. It was founded in 1998 in Phoenix, Arizona,
and takes an aggressive approach to marketing that includes
a guarantee to refund customers double the air fare
difference if they can find a cheaper fare.
On the newly-designed Europebyair.com site, users can
now plan an entire European journey from the desktop,
checking the weather, finding a hotel, and hiring a
car as well as making an airline booking.
Back in February, Europebyair partnered with
Budget to offer rental deals on Jaguar, Mercedes, and
other top models — or, if the traveler prefers, one of
Budget’s fleet of Harley Davidson Softail Classic
motorcycles.
Earlier this year, Mike Hess, vice president, marketing,
at Europebyair, promised lots of exciting changes,
many of which are now coming on-stream. Travelers can
choose from 22 airlines in all, serving 150 destinations
throughout Europe.
With online travel the number one e-commerce activity,
competition is intense in the European travel market
where firms like eBookers and lastminute.com try to
satisfy a huge range of customers. By contrast,
Europebyair’s understanding of the needs of travelers
coming primarily from the United States could give it
a distinctive edge in a very large niche.
