Google Shuts Off Airline Booking Tool in Search
- Company closing off cheaper version of travel pricing software
- Feature allowed small companies to tap airline search, pricing
Photographer: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images
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Alphabet Inc.’s Google is pulling a software tool that let small companies access search information on airfares, a potential blow to online travel newcomers.
Google’s tool was opened in 2011 after its $700 million acquisition of ITA Software Inc., an online airfare broker. In approving the deal, a federal judge required that Google keep an ITA flight search and pricing software, called QPX, accessible to third parties for at least five years.