{"id":9927,"date":"2026-11-10T14:06:26","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pros.com\/learn\/?p=9927"},"modified":"2026-11-10T14:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:11:11","slug":"flight-search-serp-distribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pros.com\/learn\/blog\/flight-search-serp-distribution\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Ranks Higher for Flight Searches? An Analysis of 33,520 Google Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Airlines lead in the top organic positions; OTAs follow closely behind; metasearch sites dominate the lower half of page one; and Google Flights ranks among the most visible individual brands.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Search for a flight on Google, and in most cases, you will see four types of flight sites in the search results: online travel agencies (OTAs) that resell flights, metasearch sites that compare fares, schedule and flight-tracking sites, and Google\u2019s own flight pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted to see how these sites divide up flight-search SERPs today. For this, we analyzed the organic results of 33,520 US English mobile flight searches recorded on September 2, 2026 (before the SERP poisoning issue<\/a>). The short answer: airlines hold the top of the page, OTAs crowd in directly behind them, metasearch sites fill the lower half of the first page, and Google Flights ranks among the most visible single brands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was measured<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The analysis covers 33,520 distinct flight-related searches tracked by 13 airlines, using Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) data for Google US English on mobile, recorded on September 2, 2026. The sample includes only keywords with explicit flight intent, such as \u201cflights from Boston to Denver.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The analysis focuses exclusively on organic search results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each organic listing was classified into one of six website categories: <\/p>\n\n\n\n