Google have splashed out around £460m on a company that aggregates flight information. ITA Software occupies a middle ground between airlines and consumers and many online travel agents are now concerned that this could be Google’s first step towards selling flight tickets.

Google themselves say that the purchase is purely for information purposes, so that they can provide flight information on results pages, but this won’t reassure Kayak or Expedia who felt strongly enough about the deal to approach ITA asking them to call it off.

With a stranglehold on the search market and access to the latest flight information, Google could eventually provide a powerful online flight booking service which would be hugely threatening to the likes of Expedia and Kayak.