According to the Financial Times, the option works for domestic and international travel, but is planned to be only available in the UK initially.
The feature was made possible thanks to a partnership between the company and the travel booking company Hopper, one of the most used travel applications in North America, which will allow it to offer the fintech products of the online travel agency, such as Prize Freeze or Flight Disruption Guarantee, among others. The app will receive a commission for every flight sale made through the platform.
The move is "the most recent and ambitious step" in the company's strategy to grow its ride-booking business, Uber UK managing director Andrew Brem told the FT. According to Brem, the objective of the platform is to become a “super application” for travel, with support for all means of transport. It should be noted that Uber already offers train and bus travel reservations in the United Kingdom.
“Perfect for business travellers and tourists alike, our new feature will make booking and managing air travel simple and stress-free, with the booking process taking just a minute in the Uber app.” The UK is one of Uber's biggest markets outside of North America, and it's serving as a testing ground.
The intention is that with booking a flight, the user will also get a discount on travel to the airport, thus attracting more customers — 15% of Uber's gross revenue in the United Kingdom comes from trips to airports.
The company has been trying to expand the types of trips since 2018, but the arrival of the pandemic delayed the project, which decided to focus on food delivery.
According to Brem, quoted by the FT, the group hopes to expand flight bookings to more countries, but “there are no firm plans yet”.