W1-based Cheapflights.co.uk has won The 3i Growth Strategy of the Year Award in
the 2007 National Business Awards South East regional finals. Presented with the
accolade tonight at a glittering ceremony and gala dinner at the Royal Lancaster
Hotel, London, the company beat off stiff competition from Carbon Capital
Markets, Maximuscle and Seko Synergy. It now advances to the November finals of
The National Business Awards.

Launched in 1996 as an online flight search and comparison site publishing
flight deals, Cheapflights provides consumers with rapid, easy to use
comparisons of hundreds of flight deals from the broadest online selection of
travel operators. The site provides travel industry advertisers with a neutral,
high-traffic source of quality high-conversion consumer leads.

The National Business Awards, sponsored by Orange, recognises and rewards
excellence, innovation and success. Uniquely open to organisations of all sizes
and from any industry sector - public or private - the best of British
businesses are able to showcase their achievements and benchmark their successes
against firms and bodies of all types.

Cheapflights stands out as one of the country’s most successful dotcoms in terms
of traffic-growth, turnover and profitability. Demonstrating consistent annual
growth on all metrics for over ten years, Cheapflights is an industry pioneer
and is differentiated from the majority of dotcoms in its profitability and also
in the way it carries advertising.

Profitable since launch, the firm has had no borrowings and profits have been
reinvested back into the business on technology, staff and site design.
Cheapflights was also the first dotcom to introduce pay per click to the
marketplace in 2000. Now catering for the US market and with plans to roll out
over Europe, it has successfully grown to meet the needs of both the public and
its travel advertising partners simply through the use of search engine
optimisation and the excellence of its site content and technology.

“The 3i Growth Strategy of the Year Award category was incredibly competitive
this year.  Cheapflights.co.uk demonstrated an innovative business model and is
a rare example of a UK online business having successfully made significant
inroads into the US marketplace, which is why my fellow judges and I believe
them to be worthy winners of this award.” Rupert Bell, director, 3i.
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