Behind Google’s Headlines: What the DMA Really Means for Airlines

In a previous post, we shed light on the fact that Google’s bombastic claims about the DMA’s supposedly negative impact on hotels do not stand up to closer scrutiny. But Google is shedding crocodile tears not only for hotels; airlines are another category of players supposedly hard done by the changes Google was forced to make due to the DMA.

According to Google, its DMA compliance has led to “increased traffic to a small number of successful intermediary services and significantly less engagement with a wide range of businesses like airlines” and others. It’s a dramatic claim but the data doesn’t quite agree.

The Data Tells a Different Story

Since the DMA’s obligations became applicable to Google last year, organic Google search traffic to airline websites has actually increased, while air ticket intermediaries have seen their organic traffic decline.

The two graphs below show the trend clearly: airlines gained roughly 6% visibility in organic traffic between January 2024 and June 2025. By contrast, intermediaries lost ca 15% over the same period, directly contradicting Google’s narrative.

To be clear, Google’s sweeping claims about the effects of its (belated) DMA compliance oversimplify a far more complex online search ecosystem. In reality, data rarely fits neatly into a talking point, and it pays to look closer when such convenient narratives are being pushed.

This is not really about Airlines for Google; It’s About Self-Preferencing

As we have outlined in our previous post, the DMA doesn’t ban direct airline links or force Google to promote intermediaries. It simply tells gatekeepers not to give themselves preferential treatment compared to their competitors; a rule Google has famously struggled with for over a decade across many sectors in online search. Google therefore has to stop giving its own travel intermediary and comparison services favored visibility on the search results page. Proposed “Book Direct” modules are exactly that: a sophisticated intermediary embedded in search results. It is a question of leveling the playing field between Google and other intermediary services, ensuring competitors to Google get a fair chance to compete with Google.

Self-preferencing is a core aspect for Google’s strategy: it keeps users engaged longer and longer in its own ecosystem and ultimately leads to users seeing more ads, and thus more money in Google’s coffer. Because when an airline receives a click from Google’s Ads, they are paying for this traffic. The clicks are not truly direct bookings, but sourced traffic, for which the airline incurs a cost to Google. Google’s gloomy warnings about harm to suppliers are thus less about defending airlines and more about defending its own privileged position. Because if fair competition feels like punishment, maybe the playing field was never level to begin with.

This Op-Ed has been authored by:

Secretary General at eu travel tech