A Python-based script that uses Selenium and Chromedriver to scrape flight prices for a specified destination and then email the scraped data to an intended email address.
This Google Flights Scraper searches for the cheapest 1-week, roundtrip flight deals from a specified airport in the upcoming 6 months from when the scraper is run. The user of the script will set a maximum price and only flights with a roundtrip price that is cheaper than that maximum will be emailed to the receiver. It is recommended that users of this script create a new Gmail account or use a non-primary account to send the emails from because allowing less secure apps to send emails through it could potentially make it easier for others to gain access to the account.
- The user must have Python 3 installed on the machine that the scraper is to be run from. See this article for help installing it.
- The user must have Selenium installed on the machine that the scraper is to be run from. See this article for help installing it.
In order for the script to send flight prices and dates via email, a Gmail account will be used.
- Create a new Google account.
- Find the Manage your Google Account button and navigate to the security settings.
- Turn the setting to allow less secure apps on.
- Note: This makes it easier for others to gain access to your account so it is best to create a new Google account without any sensitive information on it.
- Near the top of the flight_scraper.py file are constant variables for:
- DEPARTING_AIRPORT - The airport from which you want all of the scraped flights to depart from.
- MAX_PRICE - The maximum price of the roundtrip flights that you would like scraped.
- SENDER_EMAIL - The email that you set up in the above step.
- PASSWORD - The password for the email that you set up in the above step.
- RECEIVER_EMAIL - The email of the account you wish to send the scraped data to.
- To execute the program, execute the following command in terminal or command prompt:
python3 flight_scraper.py
- This script could easily be repeated weekly, daily, hourly, etc. by creating a cron job on the machine to be run. See this article for more details about how to set up a scheduled cron job.