Cheapflights Ltd, the pioneer and a global leader in independent flight price comparison, reports that its site in Germany - www.cheapflug.de, which was ‘lite launched’ with basic features in November 2008 has now relaunched as a full service site including redesigned offer pages. The German site serves Austrian and Swiss as well as 5 other neighbouring cities on Germany’s borders.  Until now it has been providing consumers with a basic multi-partner search-by-date tool together with a hand-picked travel deals service. The site now has a growing number of advertising partners including Expedia.de, TUIfly, L’TUR, opodo.de, GOVOLO.de, airberlin.com, flug.de and airline direct. 

The Company is also pleased to announce the launch of ‘lite’ basic feature sites in France; Spain and Italy (www.Cheapvols.fr; www.cheapvuelos.es; www.cheapvoli.it)

 

RELAUNCH

 

The updated Cheapflug.de site includes a redesign of the site’s offers pages and provides a new, easier to use lay-out and dozens of other new features that enable unprecedented access to flight deals for those with flexible travel plans and also for those requiring date specific deals.

 

The new offer pages present a cleaner design that is easier to navigate and create a stronger focus on the flight offers and booking engine. One headline deal is now available per brand in the first view, and by clicking on the appropriate link, more deals are also shown within a list per brand. Where we have sufficient data from flights providers there is now a calendar view display showing that brand’s deals by date.

 

The new content enabled by the relaunch has regularly updated travel tips and a library of travel-related proprietary travel guides plus links to external travel information with which consumers will be able to research and plan their travel much faster and more easily. Cheapflug.de is now a highly improved, powerful travel search tool, which is packed with information and all kinds of useful tips and tricks to help prepare users for their journey and even help them decide where to visit. It really is like a personalised virtual tour guide which also gives hints on how consumers can stretch their holiday money in today’s economic climate.

 

For advertisers, the new site provides new and more profitable ways to target consumers. This includes the opportunity for advertisers to cross-sell hand-picked deals such as car hire, accommodation, airport parking etc. when users pull up prices for a chosen destination.

 

THE EUROPEAN TEAM          

 

Cheapflights also announces that it has been building a talented German-speaking team to support its site expansion in Germany. The London based team comprises native or fluent German speakers: Rene Bastijans, International Product Manager; Cina Bahri European Business Development Manager; Sonia Altwein, Cheapflug’s German content producer; Silvija Pattar, International SEO Executive. The team between them also speak French, Spanish, Italian, Croatian as well as English. They are supported by office colleagues Adam Crawford in his role as Cheapflights’ International Search Marketing Manager and by Gabriella Libonati in her role at Cheapflights as a Client Support Engineer.

 

Reporting to Cheapflights Director and Head of International Development Mo Bulbrook, Cina Bahri is a fluent German speaker; Cina also has fluent English and Spanish and is a native French speaker. She has a very strong background in travel and in sales and marketing having had ten years experience within top 500 German companies including Bertelsman as well as in the travel industry, most recently she was International Sales Manager at CarDelMar Ferlenautovermietung GmbH Hamburg.

 

Mo Bulbrook commented: “Germany is the leading travel market in Europe. Since we launched Cheapflug.de in November 2008 we have had over 1 million visits to-date. We are very happy with Cheapflug.de’s progress so far, particularly since Cheapflights’ search and price comparison model is a relatively new concept in the German market. We believe that the very rapid response speed and the major increase in travel data now available on the updated German site will provide viewers with a great user experience. The relaunched website represents so much more for Cheapflug.de’s users and delivers new functionality, rapid ease of access to deals and tremendous additional proprietary content.”

 

Regarding the team she added: “It is our objective to become a top ten German travel site. Hence, our major investment in people able to drive Cheapflug’s future development and growth is evidence of our commitment to that market. Every market has its own particular characteristics and with their combined experience of the German travel market, the team have already contributed hugely to the ongoing improvement of the site. I look forward to providing our German customers with a site even better tailored to their needs as we continue to develop Cheapflug.de. We also look forward to developing our three new European sites as we are doing in Germany. ”