Edinburgh website Skyscanner bought for £1.4bn

Boss Gareth Williams says the company remains committed to Scotland.

Published 24th Nov 2016

The Edinburgh-based website Skyscanner is being bought by Chinese giant Ctrip.com in a deal worth £1.4 billion.

The sale marks the latest swoop by a Chinese company for a British firm.

Ctrip.com - which is China's biggest online travel service - said the management of Skyscanner would remain in place and run the company independently.

Skyscanner is available in more than 30 languages and has around 60 million monthly active users.

It was launched in 2003 to let users compare prices from different travel sites when searching for flights, hotels and rental cars.

Skyscanner chief executive and co-founder Gareth Williams said the deal took his firm "one step closer to our goal of making travel search as simple as possible for travellers around the world".

The firm employs more than 800 staff, with 10 offices worldwide, including in Barcelona, Beijing, Budapest, Glasgow and London.

Mr Williams also said Scotland remains crucial to the business, "Skyscanner was born in Edinburgh and we remain completely committed to our offices here and in Glasgow.

"We’ll continue to recruit at pace for roles across the world, including our offices in Scotland, where we employ over 470 people."