Uber is on its path to realising its “seamless, door-to-door travel” ambitions by adding flight booking functionality to its app in the United Kingdom. Hopper will be powering this functionality for Uber UK.
The feature will roll out to users across the UK in the coming weeks and will be available to all users this summer. Uber has not yet revealed any plans for expansion into other markets.
Partnership with Hopper
The collaboration also means that Uber will offer the online travel agency’s fintech Hopper’s products. This includes Prize Freeze, Flight Disruption Guarantee, and Cancel for Any Reason.
And Uber is adding additional features that leverage Hopper’s historic flight data analysis feature. Loren Kosloske, Uber’s head of growth and new products for travel, shared the partnership news on LinkedIn. Additionally, the new user experience offers a price map showing flight pricing changes over a month or week and price prediction. Users can know when and by how much the fares may change.
The domestic and international flight functionality joins Uber’s existing multimodal content in the UK. This includes Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, National Rail train journeys, Eurostar and National Express and Megabus coach and recently Heathrow Express. Uber has also opened up car rental booking to its users.
“We are incredibly pleased to introduce flight bookings as the latest addition to Uber’s suite of travel booking options,” said Andrew Brem, General Manager at Uber UK.
“Perfect for business travellers and tourists alike, our new functionality will make the booking and managing of air travel simple and stress-free, with the booking process taking as little as one minute in the Uber app. Over the last 12 months, with the addition of rail, coach and now flight bookings, Uber is truly a one-stop travel solution,” he added.
Hopper Cloud
The partnership with Uber is a big win for Hopper as the newest customer. Notably, for its Hopper Cloud product which launched in March 2021. This accounts for about 40% of the company’s revenue. Trip.com, MakeMyTrip, Kayak and Amadeus are other customers of Hopper Cloud.
“Through our B2B initiative, Hopper Cloud, we can seamlessly integrate both our travel inventory and fintech products into the Uber ecosystem,” said Frederic Lalonde, co-founder and CEO of Hopper.
He stated, “This new partnership will offer Uber users choice, transparency and flexibility when booking flights, all in the same place they are already booking their other transportation.”
Previously…
In November, Uber expanded Uber Travel globally. The feature imports flights, hotel and restaurant reservations into the Uber app. Travellers can book rides for their entire itinerary without having to input addresses. The company also added experiences content from Viator, primarily for customers in the United States, a Uber Explore development.
