Please Fasten Your Seat Belts as Google Debuts Flight Search

Yes, it’s true – Google has another new service.

As a follow up to Google’s acquisition of ITA, it has now released the new Google Flight Search. Currently available to a limited number of U.S. cities, this service will allow you to search for flights by time, destination and compare prices all within the same real time search interface.

Google explains that the Flight Search feature allows you to:

• Get super-fast results. Speed is critical to all the things we love on the web, and travel planning should be no exception. Making changes to dates, destinations, and filters should be as fast as we hope you’ve come to expect from Google.

• See a simple list of the most relevant flights. Flight Search shows you an easy-to-scan list to help you get to your destination quickly and inexpensively.

• Figure out when to travel. Quickly see which travel dates are least expensive by dragging the date selector forward or backward, or check out the bar chart to compare lots of dates at once.

• Consider your destination options. Flight Search helps you explore possible destinations, letting you filter them by airline, flight time and price. For example, you can use the map and filters to see where you can go from San Francisco within 3 hours for less than $300.

What are my favorite aspects of this feature?

I appreciate the focus on the speed of the results. You don’t have to wait at an interstitial page watching the “searching for flights” screen any longer. Another aspect to highlight is the focus on pricing. It gives you the ability to locate other flights at nearby airports (that may be at a lower cost) and a calendar feature to quickly find the lowest prices.

Do you see yourself using Google Flight Search?