Skyscanner claims social media first for airport flight search

World “first” alert! Heathrow in London has what is claimed to be the first Facebook-based flight search tool for tickets from the airport.

Travel search provider Skyscanner is behind the initiative known as Go Heathrow, using its flight search white label system.

The integration within Facebook means that visitors to the airport’s page can flip to the Go service and search for flights and discover deals to specific destinations.

The usual Skyscanner tools are included in the white label, such as filters (price, airlines, time, price, etc) and selecting favourite routes for later searches.

The project is said to be the first time that Heathrow has given its support to airlines using the airport with ticket sales.

Some 180 destinations in 85 countries are available on the service.

As with existing Skyscanner white labels, bookings are made on the host airline website, not Facebook itself.

This is not the first time that travel brands have tried to integrate search tools into their Facebook pages.

In 2013, TravelClick found that almost half (48%) of hotels had some form of room search and booking capability on their Facebook pages.