Kayak Renews Contract with Google's ITA Software

It seems almost anticlimactic at this point, but Google has apparently renewed its agreement with Kayak to let it keep using ITA Software's airfare shopping and pricing technology.

"Our relationship with ITA is continuing," Robert Birge, Kayak's chief marketing officer, said today. "We currently utilize fare information from Amadeus, ITA, Travelfusion, airlines and online travel agencies."

"In order to ensure the most accurate and comprehensive flight search results in the industry, we obtain data from multiple sources and continually optimize our global flight search technology and data requirements."

At one point, loss of ITA technology would have been considered a punch in the gut to Kayak, but it isn't considered as critical as it once was because Amadeus' Meta Pricer product appears to have gained some ground. Amadeus currently provides Kayak with a majority of its international airfares, and supplements ITA for domestic fares.

The consent agreement in Google's acquisition of ITA Software called for Google to renew Kayak's ITA agreement on similar terms through October 2016, but Kayak noted last year that if ITA doesn't provide the same enhancements that are available to Google's own flight product, Google Flight Search, then Kayak "may be unable to operate our business effectively and our financial performance may suffer."

Kayak, of course, wasn't obligated to renew its agreement with Google/ITA.

More About Google Flight Search and Kayak:

• 6 Reasons Why Google Is Fine With its Irrelevant Flight Search
• Google Wants to Take the Agony Out of Flight Search, Just Like Hipmunk
• Skift Q&A: Kayak CEO on Why Metasearch Competitors Can’t Keep Up