How To Develop A Flight Booking Mobile App: Cost, Features & Tech Stack

Last Updated on January 21, 2022

Today, with the digital revolution we can notice a sudden change in customer expectation. Thus, the traditional flight booking system is moving onto the digital platform. This, the same need for digitization has uplifted the demand for fully-featured smartphone apps. Consequently, you are noticing everything accessible more easily than ever.

Besides, travel ticket booking has become so handy today for the customers that traveling all over the world has become a convenient and fun way to handle everything so easily. Every second travel booking business person is trying hard to make their customer experience faster and smoother, and therefore the demand for a flight booking app has increased a lot. In fact, it’s becoming a mandatory facility for business owners to retain customers.

What Is A Flight Booking Mobile App?

Now, you can travel all over the world in your way with Flight Booking apps. Starting from your booking, boarding, to easy handling your travel, get a hassle-free experience with the best apps ever. Be it general or advanced features, like one-tap check-in, booking details, special deals, and more, everything is now at your fingertips. So, be all set to explore this world of coolest airline ticket booking systems today!

Benefits Of Flight Booking Mobile App

Using Online Flight Booking Apps you can plan your seamless travel and can also book your flight tickets online remotely. Such scalable apps make it easy for users to organize their trips in a time-saving and cost-effective way. Let’s know a few more benefits of Flight Booking Apps.

Easy to Book Tickets

Such apps are built especially for tablets and mobile phones, that’s why these have a user-friendly interface, which is easy and quick to browse and book flights.

Early Check-Ins

The flight ticket booking apps come with an early check-in feature which assists in saving time that’s consumed in performing formalities and verifying the documents. All such jobs are done virtually on the app, thereby, saving a lot of time.

24/7 Booking Available & Customer Support

Also, such apps always offer an all-day ticket booking facility along with round-the-clock customer support to make their flight booking job easy and smooth and resolve the issues that interfere with their booking process.

Saves Time

Since a traditional flight booking system demands a lot of time, the flight booking apps have appeared like a blessing to the customers, as now they can book their flights from anywhere, at any time, and with much ease.

Changes and Cancellations

Moreover, it’s quite easier to change the flights or cancel just by a single tap through online ticket booking apps.

Easy Refunds after the Cancellation

Furthermore, the flight booking apps also allow easy refunds after you cancel your flights due to any reason.

Why Should You Invest In A Flight Booking App – Market Stats

Well, today we are living in an era where we can expect the availability of all sorts of services on the go. Our lives have become much easy with the distinct apps being developed every second. In fact, the transition of flight booking from desktop to booking through the apps was so quick that the flight booking app has now become a compulsory aspect for business persons. That’s why the increasing demands for such apps give us a reason to invest in flight booking apps.

• A report says that the sources for travel inspiration for 28% of people are Instagram and Facebook. This led to the increasing downloads of online ticket booking apps.
• Moreover, as per research, 27% of the users prefer using a mobile app to book their travel.
• 39% of the travelers found booking a little quickly through their app.
• Furthermore, 79% of users appreciated price alerts, which appended value to their flight booking experience.
• Besides, the travel brands having their apps, get 60% of the booking through mobile devices.

Undoubtedly, the travelers enjoy the speed along with the extra functionalities that the app offers. Such statistics might have been evidenced that a flight booking app or a travel app delivers a positive user experience along with ease. Let’s move ahead for more.

Top Flight Booking Apps & Websites

SkyScanner, Kiwi.com, Momondo, Kayak, SkipLagged, Hopper, Ixigo, & IndiGo are some of the popular mobile apps for booking flight tickets.

Business Models Of Flight Booking Mobile Apps

Next, there are two types of business models that we can generally associate with a flight booking app. Let’s check them out below:

Aggregator Model

Such a booking app model is widely-known, moreover, it rules various major booking apps available in the market. According to this model, a complete list of airlines across various specialties, categories, and prices is listed in the app. Along with that, distinct payment gateways and booking platforms are also appended to the app. After selecting a particular flight, the user is redirected to the respective platform where the payment is done.

Dedicated Model

This model is popular among the top airlines. The airlines connect directly with their travelers through their apps and allow flight booking directly on their mobile phones. Almost all airlines now boast their flight booking apps.

What Do Customers Want In Their Flight Ticket Booking App?

Well, every customer looks for his ease, time-saving, and best deals at less expenditure. Let’s see what more a customer wants in his flight booking app.

• Users want their searching for jobs easier through the app. They want the entire detail of their flight in front of their eyes just by entering the source and destination.
• Easy and simple online payment.
• Get the best deal and that too at minimum spending.
• Catch up with direct flights and at the expected time.
• Easy cancellation with a quick refund.

General Features To Include In Flight Booking Apps

To make your flight booking app stand exceptionally apart from a general crowd, just be sure that you include all the important and required features in your app. Let’s check some general ones.

Customer Panel Features

A customer app should hold engaging UI design and best quality features that deliver a smooth experience.

Social Login/SignUp

The easy social login will permit the users to access the services faster. You may also ask for the email id and phone number for the login.

Flight Schedules

This feature will give your passengers the schedules of the flights that are available to their destination place on their preferred travel date.

Flight Booking

You need to make the flight booking process easy for your users so that they may book their flights just with a few clicks.

Frequent Flyer

This feature of the flight booking app will give the frequent flyer tag to the regular passengers who fly in and out most-frequently.

Booking Status

This general feature will reveal the flight booking status of the users which will show the details about the cancellations or confirmation of their bookings.

Flight Status

In this section, the cancellations, delays, arrivals, along with the departures will be displayed to offer your users the status of their flights.

Check-In

Here, the airport check-ins will be updated where the users will get the notification of their check-ins.

Ratings and Reviews

Through this feature, the users are allowed to share their feedback by updating the reviews and marking the ratings regarding their experience with the services they got from a particular flight or airline.

Admin Panel Features

Apart from the customer panel, Admin Panel should also be made easy as admins also deserve to enjoy working on your app. You may add the following features in your admin section.

Multilingual Support

Your app should support multiple languages so that your users may find it easy to communicate and manage the support and services.

Offer Management

Through this feature, the service provider will be able to manage the special offers they provide to their passengers on their flight booking. The offers vary as per the airlines.

Chatbot

A conversational interface integrated with a flight booking app, such as a chatbot will help the admins to resolve the queries of the users simply by picking similar keywords and passing on auto-generated answers. Such features offer a 24*7 support facility to the users.

Information Management

Now, service providers will also find the management of information easier with this feature, like flight details, customer information, and more.

Customer Support

This feature in your flight booking app will offer your client around-the-clock support which is very important as we all know.

View Searches

Now, the service providers will also find it easy to handle pricing and orders depending on the volume and the search keywords.

Manage Booking

This feature will easily manage all the bookings coming in the way of the service providers from their customers.

Advanced Features We Should Include In A Flight Booking App

Besides the basic features, you should integrate advanced features with your app to enhance the performance and your user experience. Let’s start then.

Live-Flight Tracking

One should integrate the Live-Flight tracking feature in a flight booking app as with live flight status, the users can easily know their flight timings, any changes, or delays.

Push Notifications

The most in-demand feature of any app, the push notification offers the users information relevant to the latest discounts and other alerts.

Virtual Travel Agents

You may offer your users the personalized guides that they may access even when they are offline. Such guides may include things to do, places to visit, and more as a travel agent suggests. Moreover, such services permit the users to view the details about their previously completed trips, and likewise.

Virtual Reality Tours

Such feature performs with virtual reality headsets and offers 360-degree video clips along with the guided virtual experiences and tours of places all over the world.

Social Media Integration

Today, social media is known to be a new way of life. Social media platforms should be included with an online flight booking app. You should offer various social media icons on your app through which the users are allowed to share information about the trips with their family and friends.

Secured Payment Gateway

The most important feature, a secured payment gateway is important as the flight ticket booking app deals with making reservations and accepting payments. So, it’s more exposed to a data breach to a 3rd party. The users will trust the app only when it is secured and holds a trusted payment gateway.

Third-Party Integration

When we integrate different sorts of third-party apps, it enhances the dimensions in which a flight booking app performs and thus increases sales.

Multicurrency

Being a personalized strategy, the app should hold the caliber to adjust the currency as the customer preference and location.

Printed Invoice

We may also permit the users to get a printable receipt of their booked flight ticket to offer them convenient travel.

One-way/Round-trip/Multi-city Search Option

The users should be allowed to search for their flights as per their requirement, it can be round-trip, one-way, or even a multi-city flight search option.

IATA Code

International Air Transport Association (IATA), a location identifier, airline designator code is a two-character code that is assigned by IATA to the airlines globally. Such codes use designators for schedules, reservations, timetables, and more.

CRM Integration

A masterstroke, CRM integration when integrated with your flight booking app will make the customers feel at home. It connects every app with your CRM platform to make data flow smooth between the apps.

Mass Booking Discount

When the users book the flight tickets in a mass at once, they may be given a mass booking discount. Such a feature will make you the top priority of the users.

Price Comparison

This feature will facilitate the user to compare the price just by filling in the destination and date, which will lead to an easy booking experience.

In-Built Calendar

Such a feature when integrated with a flight booking app will assist the customers to book their tickets conveniently. The user can decide their travel dates and days as per their working schedule.

Multi-Day Search

With this feature, the user can look for the tickets for distinct days to go with economical travel prices and plan their trip accordingly.

Weather Information

Obviously, most of the users stay unaware of the weather conditions of their destination. You may append this feature as a complimentary for the users to make them know the humidity and temperature report of the place they are heading to.

Price Drop Alert

This feature alerts the users of a price drop for the tickets they were looking for. Such a feature helps in starting with the communication ahead.

Holiday Packages

The one who loves to travel, the holiday packages are made for them only. You can integrate this feature to magnetize more users to your travel booking app to reap the benefits of your holiday packages.

Cabin Maps

This app feature will make the users available with a real-time image of the cabin so that they may pick their seats as per their need and ease.

Email Notifications

For quick and smooth communication, an email notification is always there which relies on updates that are important for users during their trip.

Search/Filter

One more essential feature of the app, the search feature assists the users to come up with easy deals according to their needs and budget depending on their past searches. Moreover, the users may also be given a suggestion list frequently to catch up the attention of the users and offer them the best deals.

Add-On Selection

Now, the user can enjoy the freedom of picking from a collection of add-on-services, such as Excess Baggage, Seat Plus, and more.

Technology Stack for Flight Booking Apps Development

Front End (For Mobile Apps & Website)

• HTML5
• CSS3
• Android & iOS
• ReactJS
• Flutter
• AngularJS

Back End (Mobile Apps & Website)

• My SQL
• MongoDB
• NodeJS
• .New Core
• PHP
• Postgres

Flight Booking App Development Process

Let’s check out the flow of a Flight Booking app Process.

• The users should find themselves capable of performing Registration to move further to Book Tickets from your Flight Booking App.
• Moreover, you need to offer them all the needed details, perfectly, while making the Registration Process.
• The guest user should be permitted only to check the availability of the flight.
• To update their profile, the users should be able to log in themselves.
• Moreover, they should be allowed to search the available flights depending on their Source place, Destination Pace, Departure Date, and Return Date.
• Make the user notified about the availability and non-availability of their flights and also prompt them to re-enter the new search criteria (if not available).
• Check Flight Status will demand customer login, and then will prompt the user to confirm his flight.
• Next, the customers can choose the ticket for cancellation from their Booking History.
• Furthermore, customers can check their booking history to view their Booking Status and Flight Status post-booking their flight tickets.
• Users should be able to book, round-way, one-way, and multi-city station flights.
• Besides, they can also select the class (Business or Economy), the number of travelers, their Departure Date, Time, & Return Date.
• Moreover, they can apply Offer and Promo Code to get discounts.
• They may also be able to apply for a flight ticket cancellation refund.
• Save the Previous Searches.
• Live Ticketing Booking and Cancellation.

Factors Affecting The Cost of A Flight Booking App Development

After knowing the flow of a Flight Booking app, let’s now take a look over the estimated cost of the app. First, let’s check out the factors that may determine the cost of the app.

Application DesignIt is expected to always craft the best and an interactive design to offer good customer satisfaction. The customer demands affect the price of the mobile app development. The design is an important factor, it can affect the usability and user experience also. That’s why a good UI for a flight booking app will increase the development cost.

Application Platform

The price of flight booking app development relies on the type of platform you pick to make the app available for downloads. The iOS apps require less testing which saves a lot of time and thereby lowers down the development cost. On the contrary, the Android apps demand rigorous testing and thus more effort and time. So, the cost for the Android app stays high as compared to the iPhone apps.

Dynamic Functionality

The flight booking app’s cost depends on distinct features that you want to append to your app. Appending the dynamic functionalities will push the cost of the development quite high. On the other hand, running with basic functionalities will come up with relatively less pricing. So, it’s your call whether you want to go with basic functionalities or dynamic ones.

App Developers

The profile and experience level of the app developers affect the entire pricing. Expert and experienced professionals are expected to charge higher. Although, this makes sure that you get a seamless performing app, all set for your business. You may also consider the profile of the developers along with their geographical location.

Mobile Wallet

When you integrate a mobile wallet with your app, it leads to a smooth payment facility with no hassle. But, wallet integration increases the cost of app development, but it’s worth it.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop A Flight Booking App

The total cost of flight booking app development can be estimated by following the advanced and basic features that we have mentioned above. The total time required to build an app is approximately 1000 hours.

The average cost of app development is near $50 to $100/hour.

Therefore, the estimated cost of a travel app development can range from $50,000 to $100,000.

Wrapping Up

With the emerging market trends, online ticket booking apps provide a good chance for business growth. Moreover, it gives an easy platform for each individual to get access to a simple online flight booking facility. The whole app development cost depends on the number of best-quality features included in the app. Also, it incorporates the functionalities of both the admin and customer panels.

So, for a cost-effective flight booking app development solution you may hire dedicated app developers services from a leading flight booking app development company.