BENGALURU (Reuters) - Easy Trip Planners, one of India's top online travel aggregators, posted its slowest-ever quarterly revenue growth as bookings dropped during a seasonally strong holiday quarter, for which rival MakeMyTrip posted record-high bookings.
Easy Trip's revenue rose 18% to 1.61 billion rupees ($19.4 million) for the third quarter ended Dec. 31. Its revenue has doubled in nearly every quarter since it went public in early 2021, before growth slowed to 42% and then to 31% in the previous two quarters.
India's travel industry is thriving, with demand for air, road and rail travel as well as for hotels booming fuelled by rising disposable incomes. But online travel aggregators are locked in a battle to win customers, with analysts saying that MakeMyTrip has lower charges and better service.
The Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip posted its highest-ever quarterly gross bookings, revenue and profit for the October-December period on robust demand for leisure travel.
On the other hand, Easy Trip's gross booking revenue -- the total value of bookings before accounting for fees and charges -- declined nearly 11% for the same period. About 90% of its bookings are for flights.
Its net profit rose about 10% to 456.6 million rupees in the quarter, while its net profit margins fell to 27.6% from 29.8%.
The company said it is looking to boost its presence in the non-air travel business for which it took a 13% stake in a hotel company.
On similar lines, MakeMyTrip said it had taken a majority stake in an inter-city car rental service called Savaari.
Easy Trip's shares had hit a 13-month high earlier in the day but reversed course to end 2.6% lower after the results.
($1 = 83.0048 Indian rupees)