Skyscanner: The Edinburgh startup which transformed the travel industry

Before the Edinburgh-based startup changed the travel sector for good, passengers had to search manually for flight tickets.

That was often a laborious task that often involved clicking through the websites of several airlines to find the best option.

And if your journey involved a transfer somewhere along the way - it became almost unbearably tedious.

Skyscanner co-founder Gareth Williams

Back in 2001, keen skier Gareth Williams was among those tearing their hair out while he tried to plan a trip to the French Alps.

The programmer decided to do something about it - and along with Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes, he founded Skyscanner.

Before long, they set about developing the site with the aim of aggregating flight prices by every commercial carrier in the world.

By 2003, the firm had opened its first office at The Bourse Business Centre in Leith. Back then, only four people were on board.

At that time, the Capital’s now-thriving tech scene was in a more nascent phase - and the shadow of the dot-com crash made it difficult to attract investors.

But the firm grew throughout the decade and by 2009 it had gone from listing only budget flights in Europe to being used worldwide with the site then available in 30 languages.

Even before it had turned a profit, the company’s leaders were at the cutting edge. The ‘Search Everywhere’ feature launched in 2006 and would become a unique part of its brand which remains to this day.

A major gamechanger came in 2007 when Scottish Equity Partners injected £2.5million into the project. Two years later, Skyscanner reported its first profit - and the only way was up from there.

The acquisition of Zoombu only served to cement the firm’s market dominance, and by 2016 it had become one of Scotland’s first unicorns - startups valued at over $1 billion.

That same year, another major milestone was reached when the Chinese Trip.com Group acquired the business in an eye-watering $1.75 billion deal.

Despite the takeover, the headquarters would remain in the Scottish capital with bosses pledging to remain firmly rooted in the firm’s birthplace.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought tough times as restrictions decimated the travel sector.

But with the post-pandemic tourism bounce-back seeing new markets emerge, Skyscanner looks set to remain at its forefront for some time to come.

Nowadays, the company has around 1,500 employees worldwide and offices in places as diverse as Miami, Singapore, Barcelona and Edinburgh’s Quartermile One development.

Meanwhile, Williams himself has become something of a figurehead in the Capital’s startup scene.

It is widely hoped his success can inspire budding entrepreneurs in the city to change the world.