Airbnb may break into flight-booking to rival Expedia, Priceline

Airbnb is developing a service for booking air travel as the home-rental start-up looks to compete with Priceline and Expedia for more of people’s online travel spending. Development of the flight-booking feature is early, and the company is considering various routes to break into the business, said people familiar with the plans. Airbnb may acquire an online travel agency or license data from a provider, such as Amadeus or Sabre, said the people. Within the company, the project is simply known as Flights, the people said. Airbnb aims to get Flights off the ground before it pursues an initial public offering, which is likely in the next 18 months, the people said. Moving into flights would be a shot across the bows of Priceline and Expedia, which operate the largest sites for flight searches and bookings. <br/>