As time goes by, the demand for convenience is growing in each and every aspect of human life. Today, we can do most things using a smartphone, whether opting for food delivery or booking a flight ticket. With more than 7.49 billion users predicted to reach in 2025, mobile revenue is increasing aggressively owing to the simplicity and ease of use characteristics of such apps. The soaring popularity of a flight booking app in the travel and tourism industry clearly indicates the growth potential of this sector, compelling various businesses to invest in this field. These apps have streamlined user travel processes, driving increased online ticket booking, which enables users to eliminate middleman involvement, saving them a lot of money.
But the question comes: how to develop a flight booking app? This blog covers that and more including the process, feature, tech stack, and cost. Let’s start:
What is a Flight Booking App: Introduction
A flight booking app is an online platform, using which users can book tickets with the touch of a few buttons to travel globally. These applications automate aviation industry processes using easy-to-use apps, where users can:
- Quickly look for flights
- Download tickets
- Check and change booking details
- Learn about special deals
What else? In some aggregator flight booking applications, users can even compare the prices of several airlines’ services. To create feature-rich flight booking apps, all you need to do is hire developer for your startup and initiate your flight booking application development. They will carry out market research and incorporate essential features into your airline booking app to make sure that your app services are better than your rivals.
In fact, as per an India & U.S. based market research and consulting company, the international online travel booking service market size was worth USD 519.1 billion in 2021 and is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 9.0% from 2022 to 2030. This market growth is associated with shifting customer behavior, the increasing influence of social media, and an upsurging inclination towards adventure travel across the globe. Thus, if you are a business-minded person and want to reap the maximum benefit of the online travel booking service market, please make sure to partner with the mobile or web app development company to build an airline booking app.
How to Develop a Flight Booking App: Step-by-Step Guide
To commence your flight booking mobile app development, it is necessary to hire an experienced mobile app development team that follows the step-by-step process to build an airline booking app.
1. Define Your Requirements
Begin your mobile app development journey by clarifying your project requirements. You must discover who will use the app and what they look for. By performing market research, you will learn what your competition offers and their limitations. Doing this will help you get an idea of the market gap, making it easy to create a requirement list that you can provide with your application.
2. Decide on Features
Pen down the best features for flight booking apps that you want in your app, such as flight booking, price comparison, etc. The right selection of features will contribute to your app’s success, so pick them wisely. Make sure you choose the necessary features, not the advanced ones, at the initial stage. Also, finalize a platform, whether you want to create an app for Android, iOS, or both operating systems.
3. Design the App
Post confirming the features, ask your UI/UX designers to design your flight booking app by creating wireframes to show how it will appear on a mobile screen and work. Additionally, ask them to create visuals while prioritizing user experience.
4. Select Technology
Picking the key technologies for flight booking app development is important to ensure the success of your app. To develop a customized flight booking app, you can choose some suitable tools and programming languages. You should also determine a system to store data, such as user information and flight details.
5. Develop the App
Now, it’s time to create the frontend and backend of the custom flight booking app for travel businesses. The team of developers will offer the features to the frontend design and write clean code for the backend. Furthermore, they will set up the server and connect to services that offer flight details, which is significant for airline booking apps.
6. Test the App
Once the development is done, the QA team will run multiple tests on your flight booking app to make sure it is free from bugs and errors. They will also carry out functional testing to make sure that all the functionalities function properly even when many users use it at the same time.
7. Launch the App
Only after successful testing, the developer will submit the app to app stores. They will upload the app on the App Store and Google Play Store platform for approval. If your app gets approved after a week, you will get a notification and your application will become available for your users.
8. Support and Maintenance
The airline ticket booking app development process continues even after launch. Keep track of its performance and number of users. Update your app at regular intervals, resolve bugs, and add new functionalities to maintain pace with the latest trends.
Dreaming of your flight booking app? Let us help you take off! Our developers are here to turn your vision into a high-flying reality with their expertise.
Must-Have Features for Flight Booking Apps
Admin Features
- Booking Management: Using a flight booking app, administrators can exercise control over user reservations, cancellations, and refunds.
- Flight Management: With the app, administrators can have a firm hand over flight information, including timetables, costs, and availability.
- Payment Management: Admins can control payments, comprising commissions and refunds through the app.
- Customer Support: The app can offer administrators a bunch of phone, email, and chat help options.
Customer Panel
- Easy Sign-up: The flight booking app needs to allow users to sign up with their official email id, contact number, and social media account.
- Profile Verification: Once users have signed up with the app with their official email id, they can validate credentials with the help of a security pin sent to their email id or phone number.
- Flight Search: The app should render search options, including but not limited to date, destination, and price range to help consumers find the best flight options.
- Secure Payment Gateway: The custom flight booking app for travel businesses must have a secure and reliable payment gateway to conduct transactions.
- User-friendly Interface: The app’s interface has to be user-friendly and intuitive so that users can search and book flights with ease.
Advanced Features
- Multilingual Support: The flight booking app development must support multiple languages to cater to customers from different countries.
- Artificial Intelligence Integration: The app should make the most of AI technology to discover the greatest deals and provide personalized vacation suggestions.
- Social Media Integration: The app should enable users to submit information about their travel plans and experience on social media sites.
- In-app Chat: The in-app chat feature comes in handy to talk to customer service associates.
- Virtual Reality: The potential airline ticket booking app development should give tours of airports and airplane cabins through a 360-degree view in order to enhance the user experience.
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List of Key Technologies for Flight Booking App Development
Selecting the correct tech stack is quite instrumental in ensuring the success of your app. We have created a list of the most suitable tech stacks to streamline your airline ticket booking app development process. Go through it.
| Components | Tools and Technologies |
|---|---|
| Frontend | Flutter, React Native, Swift, Kotlin |
| Backend | Python (Django/Flask), Node.js, Ruby on Rails |
| APIs | REST, GraphQL |
| Database | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB |
| Cloud Services | Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure |
| Payment Gateway | PayPal, Stripe, Braintree |
| Push Notifications | Firebase cloud messaging, OneSignal |
| Analytics | Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics, Mixpanel |
| Authentication | OAuthh, JWT |
| Design Tools | Figma, Adobe XD |
| DevOps Tools | Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins |
| Testing | Jest, Selenium, Mocha |
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Cost to Build a Flight Booking App
The cost to build a flight booking app varies between $40,000 to $200,000 as a large number of factors directly affect the overall development budget. Still, the complexity of the app is one of the major factors that influence the overall cost of flight app development. Take, for instance, the higher the complexity of the app and the number of functionalities it has been incorporated with, the greater will be its total cost. In a similar fashion, an app with a simple user interface and a minimal feature list will cost less than a complicated one. Take a look at the following table to know the estimated cost to develop an airline booking app based on various complexities.
| Type of Flight Booking App | Estimated Cost of Development | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | $40,000 to $60,000 | 3 to 6 months |
| Slightly Complex | $60,000 to $100,000 | 6 to 8 months |
| Highly Complex | $100,000 to $200,000 | Over 9 months |
How Can Binmile Help You Build Custom Flight Booking App for Travel Businesses?
Now that you have read this travel app development guide, you must know that flight app creation is one of the most famous trends that has affected the travel industry significantly. Thanks to the upsurging demand for easy and convenient travel globally, business owners are now searching for ways to invest in this field so that they can leverage their growing market share, build their brand value, and offer something unique to their users while fulfilling their custom needs.
Different features in mobile apps serve the key purpose of simplifying people’s lives. Their list of features is one of the main factors that impacts the cost to build a flight booking app. However, for precise estimation, it is suggested to write down the idea and discuss it with a mobile app development company that has a similar portfolio to make sure of the best results.
Binmile is a top-notch Android app development company dedicated to offering optimal quality products beyond client expectations. We leverage our innovative approach to software development to deliver expertise in every product we build. Our apps are designed to render a seamless user experience and help streamline your business operations to a great extent. With our commitment to excellence, we promise to satisfy you with our excellent AI and ML services. Have a word with our experts today to develop a flight booking application that is easy to scale and maintain as per your business requirements.
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The Bottom Line
With the emerging market trends, online flight booking app offer a great opportunity for business growth and revenue generation. At the same time, it gives every individual an easy platform to access a smooth online flight booking facility. Developing a flight booking mobile app provides a myriad of benefits, but the whole app development cost depends on the number of top features included in the application. So, for a cost-effective flight booking application development solution, all you need to do is hire accomplished developers from top app development companies. With careful planning and execution, an airline booking app can become a valuable asset in today’s competitive travel market, offering users a flawless and enjoyable booking experience.
