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How to Make the Best Flight Booking App in 2023?

Are you looking for the best flight booking app to roam the world? There are many popular applications through which you can book a flight in a few seconds. Or if you are planning to make the best flight booking app to make money, this blog is going to be a great help for you.

Although online travel booking was at its peak before the Pandemic outbreak, this business is picking the pace again in 2022. So, you can think of hiring a travel app development company to get your business off the ground.

You can know, about the features of the flight booking app, development cost, business models, and more in this blog. But if you don’t know, why should you invest in a flight booking app, your business idea can fail. So, let’s begin knowing about it.

Why Should You Invest in Flight Booking App?

Knowing the answer to why is important to begin any business. 83% of adults in the USA want to book their flight online and around 700 million people can make a booking online by 2023. This is crucial for you to know the future scope of this business. Otherwise, your app idea for a startup can face many issues.

Before 2019 there was no damp on the wanderlust of people. They could book a flight to any country they want to with just a few clicks on their smartphones. In 2018, around 148 million online bookings were recorded. It means, that 82% of bookings occurred without any human interaction.

Thereby, the online travel booking segment came out as the largest in the travel industry. Hopper and Booking.com topped the list of most popular booking applications in the USA in 2021. These apps for flight deals received huge revenue, but not as much as in 2019.

Let’s have a look at the image below. Here you can know the travel apps’ worldwide gross bookings value ($bn).

source

It shows bookings peaked in 2019 and gained the pace again in 2021. 27% of people prefer using mobile apps to book a flight, and this percentage is rising quickly. Now you must have understood whether making the best flight booking app is a good idea or not.

You might like to read: Hire Dedicated Developers to Build an App like Careem

Business Model of Flight Booking App

The business model makes you aware of how an app idea can help you make money. I am highlighting three business models used by the best travel booking apps.

• 1. Aggregator Model

  A complete list of airlines across many specialties, categories, and prices is added to the app. Here distinct payment gateways and booking platforms are included on the app according to the airlines. As the customer selects the particular flight, he is directed to the respective platform where the payment is done.

• 2. Dedicated Model

  Many big airline companies follow this model. They connect with their travelers, directly through their apps and allow the booking on the mobile phones of their customers. This is called a dedicated model because the airline company is not affiliated with other service providers for flight booking.

• 3. Advertising Model

  TripAdvisor is the best example to explain this type of business model. Travelers use TripAdvisor before booking their trips. The app suggests the most suited hotels. As the users click on the Hotel, they can read, about it and also know what travelers think about the particular hotel by reading their reviews.

Top Flight Booking Apps

Since you are planning to make an app to track the flight prices and provide the best, most affordable, and quick booking services, you need to know which are the best app for flights and hotels.

If you know your competitors, it becomes easy to surpass them. The image below shows the distribution of downloads among the top travel booking apps in the USA.

source

Let’s know about the best app for airline tickets in the space below.

• 1. Hopper

  You can find the cheapest date to fly on the calendar available on the app. It shows the cheapest dates to fly every month in a different color. Hopper also predicts if the prices are going to change in the next few weeks. It is a free app and is compatible with iOS and Android devices. Moreover, it claims to provide the most accurate prediction about the cost of future flights.

• 2. Booking.com

  Booking.com has a 35% market share and is one of the most-used apps for airline booking. It allows you to search for nearby properties, fill in a few details, and secure the reservation. Changes in the booking, cancellation and additional reservations are possible on the go. Moreover, the company served around 3 billion guests in 2019.

• 3. Expedia

  Expedia is an all-in-one travel companion, that allows booking hotels, flights, and cars. It has around 10 million downloads. Moreover, it offers a fast, easy, and convenient way to find and save your exciting adventures ahead. So, you can book your entire trip all in one place using Expedia.

• 4. Priceline

  Many people find Priceline the best app for airline tickets because its prices are the cheapest. You can save on flights, hotel rooms, and even car rental services. You can compare travel deals and find the cheapest flight booking tickets with few clicks. Moreover, it is safe to use Priceline app because it collaborates with reputed accommodation providers.

• 5. Hotels.com

  Hotels.com is the best travel booking site and a popular Online Travel Boking Agency (OTA) in the USA. It provides hotel accommodations worldwide. It also offers flights and vacation packages at reasonable prices. Moreover, it provides multiple types of accommodations to the customers.

You might like to read: How to hire mobile app developers in 2023?

Features of Flight Booking App

A lot of people are gearing up to break the journey and looking for the best app for cheap flights. If your app fails to satisfy the user, he will not take a second to leave it. So, you must offer a feature-rich and data-intensive app to your users.

Your app must have basic and innovative features so that it can stand out from the crowd. I am presenting some important features for your application. When you hire an on-demand app development company, discuss these features with your developers.

I have divided the features into three categories for easy understanding.

Features for Customers

1. Flight Schedule
2. Flight Booking
3. Frequent Flyer
4. Flight Status
5. Feedback & Reviews

Let’s read about all the features in the detail below.

• Flight Schedule

  Once you log in with an email ID, phone number, or a social media account, you can check the flights. From the list of flights, you can schedule one or more as per your destination on a preferred date. Scheduling saves you from a last-minute hassle.

• Flight Booking

  It is a vital feature of any best app to buy plane tickets. Try to make the flight booking process easy and fast for your app users because it also helps to increase the traffic on your app.

• Frequent Flyer

  As the name implies, this tag is for the customers who book the flights on a regular basis. It helps to personalize the booking. You can also provide some kind of reward to frequent flyers.

• Flight Status

  Users can check the status of their bookings. They can know check-in and check-out dates, booker name, room & unit booked, booking number, reservation status, total reservation price, and total commission.

• Feedback & Reviews

  Include feedback and review features in your app so that the customers can share their experiences. It helps new customers to book a flight and know the services better.

Features for Admin Panel

1. Information Management
2. Manage Booking
3. Multilingual Support
4. Receive Payments
5. Customer Support

Let’s read about all the features one by one.

• Information Management

  Being a service provider, you must know about the flight details, customer information, and status of the flights. It is important to provide impeccable service to the users and for you to manage the information easily.

• Manage Booking

  Best travel apps for flights manage the booking by their customers. Being an app owner, you can have the details of bookings to manage them.

• Multilingual Support

  If users face difficulties communicating while using your app, they can switch to another more convenient app. It can happen due to language barriers, so make your app should support multiple languages.

• Receive Payments

  You can check the payments made by your app users to book the flights. It helps to know the prices and provide further details about the flight booking prices so that you can update them on your app.

• Customer Support

  You must offer around-the-clock support to your app users because a quick interaction has the potential to change into effective interaction. Moreover, enable AI chatbot in your app for 24/7 hour support.

Advanced Features for Flight Booking App

1. Price Drop Alert
2. Mass Booking Discount
3. API Integration
4. Cabin Maps
5. Voice Assistance

Scroll down to read about the advanced features in the detail.

• Price Drop Alert

  Price drop alert will notify the users that now you can book a flight cheaper than the other days. This type of notification is crucial for people looking for cheap plane tickets within their budget.

• Mass Booking Discount

  You can provide lucrative discounts to the customers so that they book multiple tickets. It is called mass booking discount which helps to attract more customers.

• API Integration

  It is crucial in today’s time, that your app interacts with different applications so that customers can get services effectively. Hire the developers who use cutting-edge technology for integration.

• Cabin Maps

  It is one of the most popular advanced features in flight booking apps. The users can see the cabin in which they are going to travel before they book a ticket with the help of the Cabin Map feature.

• Voice Assistance

  You can enable voice assistant in the app to provide contactless booking. It is an advanced feature and need of the hour due to the outbreak of contagious disease Corona.

You might like to read: Mobile app development trends in 2023

Things to Follow for the Best Flight Booking App Development

Are you planning for flight booking app development? If yes, you need to be aware of the below points so that you can eliminate difficulties. Here are the experts-suggested things to follow for the best flight booking app development.

1. Understand the requirements like features, functions, UI/ UX designs, and target users of your app.
2. Hire a travel software development company that works on new technologies. Follow the intense research and check the portfolio of the firm.
3. Discuss your requirements and understand the development process to know the time required for the development.
4. Read the wireframe development guide for an effective understanding of your app’s features and functionalities.
5. Check whether the company signs a Non-disclosure Agreement or not.

Tech Stack of Flight Booking App

The technology stack of any app is a crucial part because it can make the app fab or drab. Deciding on the tech stack is a time-consuming and tiresome job. Thereby, it affects the development time a lot. I have divided the tech stack for the flight booking app into two parts for better understanding. Have a look.

Front-end Development

1. Android and iOS
2. HTML5
3. CSS3
4. Flutter
5. ReactJS

Back-end Development

1. PHP
2. MySQL
3. Node.js
4. MongoDB
5. Postgre

Flight Booking App Development Cost

Flight booking app development cost depends on various factors. Some factors are common, while some are different as per the business model. Let’s have a look at these factors below.

• Development platform
• Features and functions
• Development Team
• Testing tools
• Hosting and security
• Updates and maintenance

Moreover, if you hire experienced, and offshore developers, that also affects the cost. So, I can tell you the estimated cost. Flight booking app development cost is around $10,000-$55,000. If you want advanced features, the cost can be somewhere around $30,000-$120,000.

Final Words

You can have the best flight booking app by considering the information mentioned in the blog. Understand your requirements effectively and hire the best developers. Moreover, try to integrate advanced features into the app, so that you can attract more users.