qunar

Baidu, China’s leading search engine, recently unveiled a new feature that enables users to check travel information directly from the search engine box.

Check Your Flight Status on Baidu

With this new feature, users can get real-time flight information such as time and location of departure, layover and arrival. 

For example, you can type your flight number in Baidu, and you’ll get anything you need to know about your flight status, namely information whether there are any delays, cancelations, and other travel-related information.

Similar Services for Trains & Coaches

The service is also available for other transport modes such as trains & coaches.

For inquiries related to train tickets, Baidu redirects the user directly to train search application in the search results page.

Below is how appears Baidu search results page when I type: “train tickets” in Chinese (火车票).

Train in Baidu Search Results

You can then select your dates of travel, place of departure and destination on the application. The application will then let you know the latest available trains and the prices of remaining ticket, as well as where to buy them. 

Qunar Gives Travel Data to Baidu

The information provided by Baidu actually come from Qunar, China’s leading travel website. Baidu actually invested $306 million in the company in June 2011.

Some services from Qunar have already been integrated into Baidu search service. For example, when you search a flight from Beijing to Shanghai, you see a search box showing price trends as below:

Qunar Flight Results in Baidu