The ITA Group is a privately held travel technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1996, ITA provides solutions for airlines, travel agencies, meta search engines, corporations, and governments around the world. ITA is best known for powering leading travel booking sites such as Orbitz, Kayak, Hipmunk, and Google Flights through its QPX software.
Some key facts about ITA Group:
- Founded in 1996 in Cambridge, MA
- Acquired by Google in 2010 for $676 million
- Employs over 500 people worldwide
- Processes over 100 billion flight queries per year
- Owned many patented algorithms and technologies
ITA Group’s technology helps travelers find the best airfares quickly by computing complex flight search queries in real time. The company focuses primarily on research and development to create high-performance software and algorithms.
History and Founding
ITA Software was founded in April 1996 by a group of MIT computer scientists led by Jeremy Wertheimer, Dave Baggett, and James Psota. The three founders had expertise in travel, algorithms, and software and came up with an innovative way to search for flight information and prices.
In the beginning, ITA was more of a consulting firm that licensed airline fare data and used algorithms to find the lowest prices for specific routes. Over time, the company evolved into selling licenses for its software products, most notably the QPX flight search engine.
Key Milestones
- 1996 – ITA Software founded in Cambridge, MA
- 1998 – Launches first product, ITA Analyst, for analyzing airline fare data
- 2002 – QPX software launched, allowing ultra-fast flight pricing and availability searches
- 2009 – Processes over 500 million airfare searches per day
- 2010 – Acquired by Google for $676 million
- 2011 – Powered the launch of Google Flights search product
- 2016 – Launches free QPX Express API
Initially, ITA raised funds from private investors and federal grants to develop its software and algorithms. Over the first decade, major airlines and travel agencies became customers of ITA’s products, using them to power their flight search sites.
The big breakthrough came when ITA signed deals with Expedia and then Orbitz in the early 2000s to license QPX to enable ultra-fast flight search on their sites. This sent ITA’s growth soaring.
Google Acquisition
In July 2010, Google announced its intent to acquire ITA Software for $676 million in cash. This was one of Google’s largest acquisitions at the time.
Google was motivated to acquire ITA to access its powerful flight information software and technologies. Specifically, Google wanted to:
- Launch its own flight search capabilities
- Gain ITA’s QPX flight search engine
- Access specialized air travel data and algorithms
ITA Software was attractive to Google because of:
- Its profitable business model and stable revenues
- Innovative technology and patents
- Strong reputation in the travel industry
The acquisition was reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department and approved in April 2011. ITA Software then became a subsidiary of Google.
Shortly after acquiring ITA, Google launched its own branded flight search engine – Google Flights in September 2011. This new product disrupted the online travel industry and became an extremely popular free flight search tool.
Post-Acquisition Developments
Some key developments at ITA Group after being acquired by Google:
- 2011 – QPX powers the launch of Google Flights
- 2014 – ITA relocates headquarters to Boston, MA
- 2016 – Launches free QPX Express API for developers
- 2017 – Expands international flight search capabilities
- 2018 – Jeremy Wertheimer returns as VP of Engineering
- 2019 – New industry-leading pricing algorithm introduced
ITA has continued to innovate and release new products as part of Google, with a focus on opening up more access to its technology. ITA also added capabilities like searching for international flights and bus travel.
The founders gradually moved on from ITA over the years, but Jeremy Wertheimer returned in 2018 as VP of Engineering to lead new developments.
Products and Technology
ITA Group develops and licenses a suite of products for the travel industry, airlines, and corporations. Its main technology solutions include:
QPX Software
QPX is ITA’s flagship flight search and pricing engine that powers many leading air travel websites. Key features:
- Searches hundreds of airlines instantly
- Complex pricing algorithms find lowest fares
- Customizable search filters and parameters
- High-speed processing for real-time results
- Fares for one-way, roundtrip, multi-city
QPX delivers extremely fast (under 1 second) search results by preprocessing airline schedules and fare data on a daily basis. It enables innovative features like interactive calendars to easily find the cheapest dates to fly.
The QPX API and database are available via licensing agreements and power sites like Google Flights, Kayak, Orbitz, and many others.
Airline Product Suite
For airlines specifically, ITA offers a suite of revenue management, shopping, and pricing solutions:
- Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) data integration
- Accurate predictive pricing algorithms
- Revenue optimization modeling
- Fare monitoring and competitive analysis
- Customized flight shopping engines
These products help airlines efficiently manage seat inventories, maximize revenue, and distribute flight options through direct and third-party channels.
Other Solutions
Some other products and solutions offered by ITA include:
- QPX Bus – Intercity bus travel booking platform
- QPX Express – Free API for developers to access QPX capabilities
- Corporate Tools – Travel management platform for businesses
- Analytics – Pricing analysis software for travel industry
ITA also provides various consulting, implementation, and support services to complement its products.
Business Model
ITA historically generated revenue through several avenues:
- Licensing its software products to customers
- Data services and distribution fees from airlines
- Professional services for implementation and customization
- Ongoing maintenance and support fees
Before being acquired, ITA was already quite profitable serving airlines, online travel agencies, and corporate clients.
As part of Google, ITA’s business model has shifted more towards driving adoption of its search tools across Google platforms. QPX also powers various Google travel products including Google Flights and Google Travel.
Driving widespread adoption has enabled ITA to monetize through Google’s core advertising model. ITA technology helps provide relevant flight and pricing content that attracts users.
ITA also continues to license QPX and other solutions to major partners in the travel industry. However, the business is more strategically aligned with Google’s priorities and travel search capabilities.
Financial Information
As a subsidiary of Google, ITA Group does not report recent standalone financial results publicly anymore.
Historically though, ITA was a profitable and fast-growing software company before being acquired.
In 2009, ITA generated around $500 million in revenue and $150 million in profit according to estimates. It was adding new airline customers rapidly with revenue projected to rise above $1 billion by 2012.
The acquisition price of $676 million paid by Google in 2010 valued ITA at over 15 times annual earnings at the time. This high premium reflected the value of ITA’s technology, people, and growth potential that Google saw.
Leadership and Culture
ITA Group has maintained an innovative, engineering-driven culture even after being acquired by Google. Many senior leaders are still in place over a decade after the acquisition.
Leadership Team
- Jeremy Wertheimer, VP Engineering – One of the original founders, returned in 2018 after some years away. Leads development of new products and technologies.
- Victor Charpentier, VP Operations – Joined ITA in 2004. Oversees core operations, airline relationships, pricing data services.
- Michael Weissman, VP Sales – Drives licensing and partnerships with travel companies and airlines.
- Linda Steele, Sr. Software Manager – 20+ year engineering veteran at ITA. Leads QPX software initiatives.
While ITA operates as an independent subsidiary, Google provides additional oversight through directors on ITA’s board from finance, legal, and M&A functions.
Day-to-day though, ITA maintains its own organizational culture and development processes distinct from Google. Engineers use C++ compared to Google’s preferred languages. ITA also makes extensive use of Linux.
Culture and Values
As a technology and algorithm-driven company, ITA looks for software engineers and quantitative analysts to drive innovation. Key cultural values include:
- Innovation – Create new solutions to complex problems with technology
- Craftsmanship – Mastery of skills and pride in engineering excellence
- Automation – Leverage algorithms and data to automate processes
- Questioning – Ask why and explore better approaches
ITA strives to maintain an open, transparent culture where new ideas are embraced. Engineers are encouraged to learn, experiment, and refine solutions through iteration.
There is also a focus on autonomy and trust – employees are given flexibility to identify issues and determine solutions. Peer-to-peer collaboration is valued and teams use an Agile, SCRUM-based workflow.
Competition
In the travel search software space, ITA competes against several other major providers of airline booking platforms and flight search engines:
Amadeus
- Global leader in travel software
- Specializes in technology for airlines and hotels
- Provides reservation systems, inventory management, pricing engines
- Customers include British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France
Sabre
- Develops software for aviation and hospitality industries
- Offers airline reservation systems, airport operations, revenue management
- Customers include American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue
Travelport
- Provides distribution platforms for airlines, hotels, car rentals
- Owns the Galileo and Worldspan GDS systems
- Customers include Delta, Southwest Airlines, Intercontinental Hotels
ATPCO
- Operates airline fare data distribution system
- Aggregates schedules, fares, rules for 500+ airlines
- Key data source for ITA and other airline tech firms
Each competitor has strengths in certain solution areas or geographies. But ITA is recognized as a leader in high-performance airline search technology specifically.
ITA also benefits from integration with Google’s vast search capabilities now. This positions ITA well as travel search becomes more multi-modal.
Partnerships
In addition to customers and data suppliers, ITA maintains key partnerships to distribute and enhance its technology:
Travel Industry Partners
- Online travel agencies – Expedia, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Kayak
- Metasearch sites – Google Flights, Skyscanner, Momondo
- Traditional travel agencies – Carlson Wagonlit, American Express
- Corporate booking tools – Concur, AmTrav
Licensing QPX powers flight search across these industry partners, who rely on ITA’s speed and capabilities.
Airline Partners
- United Airlines – Core airline partner and investor
- American Airlines – Adopted ITA tools after Sabre acquisition
- Southwest Airlines – Uses ITA’s pricing analytics
- Alaska Airlines, JetBlue – Utilize revenue management products
ITA works closely with airlines of all sizes to optimize revenue, distribute content, analyze sales, and improve the shopping experience.
Technology Partners
- ATPCO – Core data provider for schedules, fares, restrictions
- SITA – Aviation telecom and IT services
- Accelya – Offering financial settlement solutions
- CarTrawler – Global car rental booking platform
Integrations with travel technology partners greatly enhance ITA capabilities for air, car, hotel, rail, and more.
Impact and Innovation
Over 25+ years, ITA Software has had tremendous impact on the travel industry and reinvented airline retailing in many ways:
- Enabled ultra-fast flight search – ITA made finding options across airlines nearly instantaneous.
- Drove adoption of online booking – Software like QPX allowed websites to provide real-time fares and reservations.
- Lowered distribution costs for airlines – Software cut expense of legacy mainframe systems.
- Increased airline pricing flexibility – Algorithms optimize prices and surface relevant options.
- Launched metasearch – QPX allowed aggregator sites to easily combine results from suppliers.
- Opened up fare data – ITA successfully negotiated agreements to access and analyze airline fare info.
Today, the vast majority of airline bookings happen through online channels, thanks to innovations like those from ITA making the process faster, easier, and more transparent.
ITA also continues to pioneer new capabilities:
- Multi-modal travel search – Combining flights, hotels, cars, trains
- Mobile innovations – Enable more location- and identity-aware experiences
- Personalization – Unique offers and recommendations for customers
- Predictive analytics – Recommending when to buy vs wait for lower fares
The mission of “organizing the world’s transportation information and making it universally accessible” still guides technology development at ITA today.
Conclusion
ITA Software has been one of the most influential companies in travel technology over the past 25+ years. Its innovations in search, pricing algorithms, and distribution models helped expand airline retailing online.
As a subsidiary of Google, ITA Group continues to create high-performance software and tools that power many of the leading metasearch engines and travel sites. Products like QPX enable the ultra-fast flight search capabilities travelers rely on today.
With continued investment in R&D and new partnerships, ITA is positioned to drive further advancements in multi-modal travel planning, predictive pricing, and personalized recommendations. The company remains focused on its mission of organizing travel data worldwide and making it easily accessible to all.