The Impulse Web site -- ranked 21st in Internet monitoring service Hitwise's Travel category previously -- leapfrogged to the number one spot after announcing its super-saver shopper offer to the public on Sunday.
"The top spots have been consistently occupied by the major airlines Qantas and Ansett," Hitwise said. "Impulse has steadily increased its position, surging in the rankings over the past few days to take out the number one spot."
Qantas and Ansett were knocked down to second and third place respectively as eight-week old Impulse claimed 12.63 percent of the Hitwise travel sector's traffic. However, matching the new entrant airline's ticketing tit for tat led increased traffic to the major players' sites also.
On Monday, Ansett pipped Impulse to the post and settled into the top position after 15.35 percent of Australian traffic to the Hitwise travel category went to its site. Qantas maintained second place with 12.57 percent of Internet traffic and Impulse was ranked third and received 11.54 percent of traffic.
As consumer curiosity was quenched and comparison shoppers lost interest, traffic to all three sites decreased by Tuesday, although according to Hitwise it was still significantly higher than the previous week.
"With newcomer Virgin Blue's site already generating significant traffic, it will be interesting to see how the online airline battle develops," Hitwise executive director, Andrew Barlow said.
