Aviasales

Aviasales emerged in 2007 as a personal blog about bargain airfares.[8] After pivoting to a travel service in 2008, the first ticket for the Moscow-Paris flight was found and booked through Aviasales.[9] By 2012 Aviasales exceeded 2 million monthly active users.[10] In 2012 the company launched a travel search for the China market under ifeiso.com brand.[11] Later the project was closed.

In 2014 VC firm iTech capital invested 10 million dollars into Aviasales. Travel metasearch offering gets more than 4 million monthly unique visitors, making more than 500,000 search queries for tickets per day.[12] In 2019 Aviasales stretched hotels inventory and started a strategic partnership with Booking.com.[13] In 2020, as an immediate response to Covid-19, Aviasales introduced a ‘remote first’ policy for the employees.[14] From now on, staff members could choose either to continue working from the company's offices or work remotely.[15]

In May 2012 Aviasales’ mobile application for iOS was launched.[16] The next year, the company released a version for Android.[17] In 2013 the service introduced an interactive map that helps users search for the cheapest flights.[18] In July 2016, Aviasales launched a chatbot for messengers like Slack, Facebook, Viber, and Telegram. The chatbot chooses cities of departure and destination, month and duration of the trip; a user can be updated whether the price comes up or down.[19]

Aviasales claims they are the first company to introduce the selection of baggage while searching in 2017. Baggage policies are highlighted for the particular airfare, and users could select the rate with or without baggage. In 2017, Aviasales launched the search for a fare with or without check-in baggage.[20] In 2020, «Aviasales for business» was launched for corporate travelers. It helps enterprise clients with last moment changes, cancellations, and paperwork related to business trips.[21]

In 2021, the service ‘Aviasales More’ was launched. It provides cashback for travel services, exclusive travel content, and premium support.[22] The same year, Aviasales has launched ‘Ok to go’, a guide to re-opened countries. ‘Ok to go’ contains information about COVID-19 restrictions and conditions for traveling.[23]

At the beginning of 2018, the company localized the service for Kazakhstan; http://www.aviasales.kz/ a year later, one-third of the air tickets in the country were booked through Aviasales.[24] In 2019, the company entered the markets of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Ukraine. The number of bookings in new regions grew 11 times, the company's profit increased by 40%.[25] Currently, Aviasales operates in 14 countries in Eastern Europe, CIS, Asia, and the USA.[26]

In February 2014, the service closed the ‘Series A’ round of investments of $10 million from the iTech Capital fund. After some time, this deal was named Deal of the year at the Venture Award. Investments were attracted for service development, product marketing, and staff expansion.[27]

In August 2021, Aviasales received a $43 million investment from Elbrus Capital Funds and iTech Capital during the ‘Series B’ round. The company plans to use the injected capital to launch new products and continue growth in both domestic and international markets.[28]

• official website