Ebookers

Ebookers was formed in 1998 by Dinesh Dhamija. The origin of the company lies in a London based travel agency called Flightbookers, which was established in 1983. Flightbookers is credited with developing the first interactive travel website in the UK. This was so successful that in 1999, the Internet business was separated to form ebookers. In November 2000, ebookers bought Flightbookers for $15m, thereby reuniting the two companies.

Ebookers.com is an online travel company specializing in the mid and long-haul travel segment. It is well-known for offering a wide range of travel products including hotel reservations, flights, car hire and sports packages. Initially, ebookers did not appear on the first page of Google search rankings because all websites were hosted on the same external IP address for about 10 months. However, with a change in the hosting technology, the website now figures prominently on Google results.

Ebookers was acquired by Cendants (now Travelport) on 28th February 2005. At that time, ebookers was valued at $350 million. With this acquisition, Travelport became one of the world’s largest travel companies. It is spread across more than 130 countries through a network of 8,000 professionals and travel agencies.