In an interaction with MediaNama, Hrush Bhatt, Co-Founder, and Director, Product and Strategy, at Cleartrip, one of India's leading online travel agents talked about the company's operations, its internet-only approach, the impact of instability in the Indian aviation sector and hike in air fares, IPO plans, and other changes in the overall landscape. Some notes from our interaction: - On operations: Bhatt informed that in terms of revenue, Cleartrip witnessed a 45% Year on Year growth in the last quarter. Air ticketing contributes as much as 80% to the company's revenue, followed by Hotels, and Train ticketing is in high single digit. On being asked about the difference in margins in hotels and air tickets, Bhatt responded that margin on hotels was roughly doubly than the margins on air tickets. - Active users: Bhatt informed that Cleartrip has approximately 120,000 daily active users. However, the company does not share data on average daily transactions. - Impact of instability in aviation and increase in air fares: Bhatt says that at a macro level, the market contracted 8-9% in terms of total passengers flown, but flight booking performance was still good at a time when Kingfisher's operations were suspended and airfares went sky high. While the company did see a 3-4% contraction in volumes in the last quarter, revenue growth wasn't impacted as tariffs made up for the decline. - On Railway Bookings: Cleartrip also offers railway ticket bookings but according to Bhatt IRCTC's directives including the one that asks users to sign-in using…
