The Scotland-based flight price comparison website, which is available in more than 30 languages, will continue to be managed separately from the Chinese online travel company, according to reports.

It has around 60 million monthly active users, and enables them to compare prices for plane tickets, hotels and rental cars from various travel sites.

Skyscanner’s management team will continue to manage operations independently once the deal has been finalised, the Guardian reported.

Gareth Williams, chief executive of Skyscanner, said: “Ctrip is the clear market leader in China and a company we can learn a huge amount from.”

The acquisition by Ctrip took Skyscanner “one step closer to our goal of making travel search as simple as possible for travellers around the world”, he said.