These days, all kinds of on-demand services are available for people with the help of smartphone apps. We are living in a world, where on-demand applications are getting popular. Businesses are also adopting mobile app development services due to their immense popularity. For business purposes, owners just need to reach out to the right booking app development company and describe to them all the business needs.
Smartphones are making life easier and now, it is possible to avail all the services with few touches over the screen. It’s not been too long since we used to stand in a queue, and wait for our turn to book a ticket to go somewhere. The flight booking app has transformed the way, we used to book tickets. Now you can book online tickets for flights easily, and can also check seat availability via the mobile phone app. DIY seems too easy with your laptop and handheld devices.
The ticket booking trend is now gaining traction faster due to the rising mobile revolution. Travelers book flights and holiday trips independently, which eliminates the third-party tool and reduces the cost. IT firms also rejoice in flight booking app development being the next dominant for grabbing opportunities.
There are many trip advisor apps in the market where most famous are Expedia, Momondo, Google Flights, and others., which avail the ticket booking services. More than 43% of trip tickets are made through travel apps. If we peek into the mobile phones of travelers, more than 80% of travelers have downloaded some sort of flight booking app, where 60 % of users make use of the app.
Here, this blog is intended for mobile app development companies, investors, software developers, and everyone who wants to know the details about the cost & features of Flight ticket booking app development.
Table of Contents
Industry Statistics
Amidst the huge advertisement of travel booking app, consumer wants their trips and ticket to be booked in the blink of an eye. Almost more than half of the tourists find some app to book tickets fast and secure hotel rooms. Let’s take a look at some random facts:
- 148.3 million Travel bookings are done every year.
- In the year 2019, hotel booking statistics got too high and were estimated to cross $174 billion by 2020.
- The travel booking industry was expected to hit $817 billion last year before the pandemic.
- Online hotel booking is expected to be used by 700 million people by 2023.
- Around 70 of travelers love to find trips on smartphones and 39% of all find apps fastest for booking.
- 83% of USA users book travel online.
- In 2019, online travel sales were recorded at $755 billion.
- In 2018, 82% of travel booking was done online.
Below is a graph that depicts the stats of different flight booking sites used by people to book their flight tickets. There are some of the famous sites appreciated by users. Although, it seems that Booking.com and Skyscanner have provided them an enhanced customer experience as these have the highest respondents.
Booking flight tickets is the most prominent part of travel planning. The procedural complexities of the booking require time. The effective trip booking system deals with schedules, fares, taxes, rules, regional laws, and cancellation.
Flight Booking App Components
A flight booking app is made up of many components. The multiple components leverage customers with the range of features and advantages of using the app over traditional ways.
Let’s understand the app’s advantages with the help of its components:
1. Search For Flights
One of the most primary steps for online ticket booking is to decide the date and destination of travel. Such information is required to book the tickets or search flights. You can search your flight by entering the destination & boarding city, and then the travel date.
2. Flight Reservation System
This web-based solution connects the database with a global distribution system. This system gives real-time cost and availability data to customers and agents. Initially, the airline flight booking system was only limited to booking flights, but now it has been extended to flight management tasks too. The airline reservation systems are online software to retain information and make flight booking transactions.
Online booking can be done on the aggregator portal or the airline’s website. Aggregator websites take some extra service charges.
3. Online Payment System
The online booking system contains multiple payment integration, where you can pay for the flight booking through card or net banking.
4. Boarding Pass Options
As you make payment, the boarding pass can be taken through the airline website or from the airport, for which you need to be extra cautious and reach the airport 2.5 hours before departure time. It is one of the essential features for Flight booking website development.
5. Flight Details
Flight information is essential for booking tickets online. You may need to know the time taken during travel, stops, and the number of reservations available. Sometimes prices are higher due to direct flight to a destination and whereas, sometimes cheaper flights are there due to stops in between.
Business Models of Flight Booking Mobile Apps
There are two types of business models for flight ticket booking website development, which can benefit from flight ticket booking system development.
Here are the details about these models, from which you can choose your preference.
A) Aggregator Model
Flight booking app development is usually approached for the aggregator model. Many famous booking apps are running in the market, hence the user can find an entire list of airlines available over your preferred destination. Here, the list can be categorized as per the specialties, prices, and categories. These apps also provide different kinds of features such as offers and discounts to apply in stays/hotels for less prices. Users can make payments in advance or can pay after reaching or staying at the hotel.
B) Dedicated Model
Dedicated models in flight ticket booking system development are less common but it is mostly demanded by the top airlines. Travelers can directly find prices and availability over the app and book the ticket online. Every airline has a dedicated booking system.
There is a great demand for booking app services, be it Android or iOS app development services, due to the rising tendency of touring and trips. People do look for great deals, time-saving journeys, and cost-cutting overstays. Whichever model you choose, the customer always has some common requirements fulfilled by the app. Let’s understand what customer receives with on-demand flight booking app development-
- Easy search and booking process
- Best deals, and minimum expenditures
- Catch the direct flight at the exact expected time
- Get the onboarding pass
- Easy cancellation with a quick refund.
Benefits of Flight Booking Mobile App
Using flight booking apps help in making your travel smoother with an easy booking process for tickets and hotel stays. The scalable apps help users, organizing their trips cost-effectively. Let’s know some major benefits associated with air travel app development:
1) Easy to Book Tickets
A user-friendly interface helps with booking tickets for flights. Users can use tablets, mobile, or any choice of devices to book flight tickets. Browse through the navigations and utilize many features.
2) Check-ins
Users do not need to hustle for verifying documents as all jobs are being done virtually on the app that saves time and effort. It also assists to save you from formalities.
3) 24/7 Customer Support
Users can browse options, search flights, and book tickets anytime. The ticket booking facility is available round the clock, which makes the flight booking process smoother. If a user finds the issue, he can talk to a consultant anytime.
4) Time-saving
The traditional ticket booking system demands a lot of time. But the convenient on-demand flight booking app development leverages the customer with several benefits.
5) Cancellations
Earlier, the ticket cancellation was a long process. Now the tickets can be canceled with a single tap over the screen.
6) Easy Refund Over Cancellation
Flight booking app allows canceling flights and receiving refunds to the bank accounts.
Features to Include in Flight Booking App
For making an exceptional app, you need to put some exclusive features into your flight ticket booking system development. Here, we will discuss common and advanced features that can be integrated into the app-
Customer Panel
The customer panel is the most interesting part of any app. An app makes a better market due to customer retention. It is always possible to make some betterment in the regular UI and interface of the customer panel. The engagement of the customer panel encourages the range of features you put into.
Let’s starts with some common features:
Login
Login is a common screen across the app industry. The app can be accessed faster by linking it with any of your social media profiles. You can also sign-up here, using your mobile number.
Flight Schedule
The flight feature gives flight details by entering the destination and time. You can find travel details for the preferred date and know cost & availability.
One-way or Round-trip or Multi-city Search
Users can search for cost-effective one-way or round-trip booking. Travelers may also organize their trips around different cities, and check availability before booking. You can also plan trips to multiple cities through this feature.
Booking
You can book the flight by clicking on the “book now” button. The swift process takes the user to the booking window from the flight schedule window.
Privileges
If you are a regular traveler and keep booking tickets frequently, you get the tag of the frequent flyer along with some benefits.
Status of Booking
If your seat is confirmed or not, you can check on the booking status window. You can check the details of your ticket cancellation or confirmation.
Status of Flight
If there is any change in the schedule, or if there is any delay, cancellations, or any offers, you can see them by checking the flight status.
Check-in
Airport check-ins are updated when the users get the notifications of check-in.
Rating
In today’s time, users are more interested in giving reviews. They can share their feedback and their feeling about the ticket booking services. It is a good platform to share the experience with other users.
Admin Features
Admin panel makes handling data and information easy. Admin section demands the great involvement of database and direct interaction with the data in mobile app development service.
Here is a list of common features of the admin panel:
Information Management
The service provider can easily manage the information with the features such as flight details, client information, additional features, and many more.
Customer Support
Flight booking apps must give customer support for clients. Admin panel needs to have a separate section for answering the query round the clock.
Multilingual
You can toggle the multilingual support, which facilitates the communication and management of service and support with the help of the admin section.
Offer Management
The service provider can manage the special offers and tempt users to book tickets. Offers may vary according to airlines that creates a great rush for flight booking.
Chatbot
The Chatbot feature is added to leverage the chat with users and resolve rising queries with the admin panel of the flight booking app. Often, it is a third-party tool that allows multithreaded chat. Also, the complexity is reduced with auto-generated replies giving 24/7 flexibility for users.
View Searches
When the user gives a query for a particular destination or something else, it is acquainted as a keyword, if queried by many. The service provider handles the prices fluctuation depending upon the search keywords.
Booking Management
In this, a dealer can manage the bookings from customers.
Advance Features
It is important to offer something unique to the customers for making an app successful as it enhances the app performance in the market. Imagination has no limitation, and therefore, there could be anything you can feature with your iOS or Android app development service. The tech industry demands proper R&D before finalizing the solution. Here are some advanced features that are trending for flight ticket booking system development. Let’s start:
Live Tracking
On-demand apps are rising towards real-time tracking. Everyone wishes to see the real-time status of flights. Users will get real-time updates for delays, changes, or abrupt cancellations.
Push Notification
Although it is not a unique feature in online flight ticket booking app development, still it is an important one. Push notifications keep users updated about the relevant information of the flight such as discounts and other alerts. Also, email notifications are important to alert users about the received mails.
Virtual Travel Agents
The Flight booking mobile app development has multiple features. One of them is a virtual travel agent that works as a guide for users to know about places to visit, things to do, and other suggestions. Such services also allow users to view details about their past completed trips.
VR Tours
It is an amazing feature and fantastic integration to your travel app. The app can give users a VR tour or a 360-degree view of the travel place through video clips. Users can get a live experience of the place without going there.
Social Media Integration
Social media is a second world that can be integrated into the online flight booking app. Users can share the feedback and experiences of their trips with others through social media links. Enthusiasts love to share stories with others.
Payment Gateway
Payment gateway is an important feature, moreover an essential one. Users who search for the flights need to book flights and make payments. This is only possible with the secured payment gateway services. Payment gateway is a matter of security and information breach, therefore third-party payment gateway is important.
Third-Party Integration
An app needs to have a different set of features. There are many third-party apps, which offer several features. Flight booking apps can be made more popular using third-party feature integration. Some tools such as AI and VR integration also demand third-party integration.
Multicurrency
If you are looking for online flight ticket booking app development in the global market, you need to put into different features that can relate to world-class travel. Also, your app needs to have multi-currency support for the payment system according to the customer’s location.
Invoice Generation
Users may get printable receipts of the booked flight ticket. It makes travel convenient for them.
IATA Code
IATA stands for International Air Transport Association. It assigns two-character codes for airlines. Such codes use designators for timetables, reservations, and schedules.
CRM Integration
When CRM is integrated into the flight ticket booking website development, it makes the data flow smooth. The integrated CRM lets user communicate and retrieve the information, whenever he wants.
Booking Discount
When the user books a ticket first time with your app, or books tickets in mass, you can offer them a discount. Such features make your app a top priority for them.
Price Comparison
A user wants to opt for a cheaper option. It is the reason why the user needs to compare several alternatives. This is possible with the price comparison.
In-built Calendar
The calendar needs to be integrated into the app that can be used for booking tickets and deciding travel dates as per their schedule. The user gets easy access to such features.
Multi-day Booking
Users can search their flight tickets for distinct days at economical travel prices with the help of this multi-day booking feature. It helps them to plan their trip consequently.
Weather Information
You never know the weather condition at a particular place on a certain date. Weather information tools can be integrated into the app to let users plan the trip as per the weather. Your app helps users to tell if it is too hot or is it cloudy, or whatever the weather condition is on their trip day.
Holiday Packages
Frequent travelers keep looking for holiday packages to have cheaper trips. You can integrate amazing features and exciting holiday packages for inviting users. Your customers may find it exciting to reap out the profits from packages.
Cabin Maps
This is an interesting feature, where users can see the cabin’s real-time image. It makes it easy for them to pick seats as per their ease.
Add-On
Users can pick extra services from the collection of available services, such as Seat Plus, Baggage, and others.
Monetization
Building an app is always intended to make it popular. Monetizing an app is not a unique thing. There are many patterns of getting max business revenue from travel booking apps like Expedia. A business-oriented strategy can leverage profitable strategies and a sustainable client base.
There could be many monetizing strategies where below are few popular:
1. Merchant Model
Users can book tickets for a one-way journey or multi-city trips. Merchandising the trips in air travel app development can give stable revenue from the app.
2. Commission Fee
You can promote hotels, and earn good commissions by using Using third-party services.
3. Advertising
You can use your app for advertisements. Displaying advertisements demands some space on your app. As a user comes and clicks over the advertisement for reaching hotels and trips, your app earns a decent commission.
If you are building an application for profitability, the air ticket booking app development needs to integrate the maximum number of features. Above are some simple money-making strategies, whereas the actual strategies may include many more turns and loops.
Technology Stack
Be it an app or Flight ticket booking website development, it requires a powerful technology stack along with amazing features to be successful. A scalable website or app is always supported by the latest technology stack by expert developers. The latest tech stack allows developers to do whatever they want.
You can hire a mobile application developer to know about the most suitable technology stack. Let’s understand the latest technology stack available to empower the solution-
Front-end technologies: HTML5, CSS3, Android & iOS, ReactJS, Flutter, AngularJS
Back-end Technologies: My SQL, MongoDB, NodeJS, New Core, PHP, Postgre
Database: MySQL, Postgre, Cassandra, MongoDB
Real-time analytics and Server: Google, Cloud, AWS, Hadoop, Big Data, IBM
Payment Integration: PayPal, Stripe
Push Notification: Nexmo, Twilio for verification
OS: Ubuntu, Debian
The above technologies make the Flight booking website development unique and timeless with the scalability to expand with other features. There can be other requirements as well that are made available using new entrants. It is better to understand and research what suits most while having iOS or Android app development services or website development services.
Factors Determining the Flight Ticket Booking Cost App
Many factors affect the cost of an app. There can be few business factors or technological factors or can be geological factors. The travel ticket booking app is influenced by some factors, have a look at them below-
The Platform of An App
Depending upon the choice of development platform, you can hire iOS app developers or Android app developers. Be selective as the cost of an app is greatly influenced by the choice of platform. An Android app is tested over multiple devices because of operable over multiple devices, whereas the iOS app is tested over fewer devices. The app cost also increases with hiring Android or iOS app developers.
Flight Booking App Design
Flight booking app design is a most enticing part of the app development process that can vary app marketing costs. The app usability and UX depend on the visual elements, where stakeholders want the app to imbibe compelling features. There is used an amazing set of visual elements that may shoot the costs up, but it gives a better return for the long run.
Mobile App Developer Experience
Competent and experienced developers demand a higher cost for providing Android or iOS app development services. This increases the overall cost of Flight booking website development to a significant amount. You need to look for expert programmers who demand a dedicated outsourced team for the flawless app. The geographical location of developers and the profile are also considered while estimating cost.
Mobile Wallet
Air ticket booking app development may contain a wallet system that is a new trend with current apps. Integrating a wallet system requires financial law compliances and payment-related complexes. The app needs to have some latest features, mobile wallets are prominent among them to promote the app in the market.
Dynamic Features
The flight ticket booking app cost depends on the many distinct features. Integrating the dynamic functions pushes the cost of an app higher. On the other side, if you keep an app simpler, it may cost less but not likely to earn popularity. It is up to business owners and monetization strategy to go with basic or dynamic features.
How Much Does Flight Booking App Cost?
The cost of flight ticket booking travel app development is easy to estimate with the features. If you keep AI, AR and AR features available for the users, the cost highly deviates from the regular cost to develop a flight booking app.
Along with the features, there are various other elements as well, responsible for varying the general flight booking app cost. These elements include app type, app complexity, location, tech stack, and others. Below we have defined different “per hour costs” of developers in different countries.
Eastern Europe Countries- $15 to $55 per hour
Central Asian Countries- $20 to $40 per hour
East & South Asian Countries- $25 to $50 per hour
North American Countries- $40 to $100 per hour
Based upon the above cost of app development per hour in different regions and other factors, we can estimate the overall cost of flight ticket booking app development will be around $25,000 to $80,000.
For the cost estimation of air ticket booking development, the entering cost may look higher, but long-term revenue justifies the investment. You can slow down the budget by contacting a reliable mobile app development company. A good IT firm understands the requirements and components for entering into any market, which avails you of many benefits.
Conclusion
Flight ticket booking app development is the latest trend in the market as the travel industry is rising globally, and people are relying on mobile apps for easy trips. Business owners are also turning their face towards it to make a lot of profit. Flight booking app contains a range of features and making competition tougher, travelers demand distinct services. An app needs to cater to something unique for gaining great revenue and building brand value.
The most prominent motive of distinct features is to make people’s lives easier. The roster of features makes it easy to calculate the cost of an app. Though many factors affect rough cost estimation, it may help you out for better ideation, however exact estimation is only possible with penning the idea down on paper and discussing it with any mobile app development company or developer. Make sure to hire mobile app developers with a similar portfolio, for earning the best reward of efforts.
