Ixigo has tied up with airline Spicejet, UAE and New Zealand-based online travel agencies Musafir and Kiwi to add their flight content on Ixigo’s apps and website. Ixigo claims to reach over 9 million users monthly and has 40 partners from where it aggregates travel information from. This includes MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip, EaseMyTrip, Simplio, Tripsta and Jet Airways.
International flights can also be booked on Musafir, Kiwi and Cleartrip in a single tap within the app without being redirected to a third party site. Spicejet hopes to grow its direct sales and reach first time flyers with the partnership. For an introductory offer, Ixigo and Musafir will offer a cashback of Rs 1,500 on international flight bookings and Rs 600 on domestic flight bookings.
Earlier this year, the company launched ixibook, a service which would allow users to book flights and hotels within the ixigo app, in a partnership with Cleartrip and OYO Rooms.
Ixigo has been concentrating on building national travel services with partnerships with Uber and redBus to let its users book cabs and buses from the ixigo trains app. In April, ixigo launched offline cab booking from Ola and EasyCabs and in May, it launched intercity cab booking with 250 intercity cab operators.
Developments in the online travel space this year:
In October, MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo merged into one. In the same month, Cleartrip launched a ‘price lock’ feature which would let users lock a flight booking price for a fee and made multi-city flight booking available on its mobile apps. In August, Travelyaari raised $7 million in Series B funding from its existing investors.
Internationally, Chinese online travel agency Ctrip acquired Skyscanner, a UK based flight search engine company for $1.74 billion. TripVillas and HomeExchange partnered to launch their home exchanging program in Asia. In September, Google launched an Android & iOS app called Google Trip to help users plan and organize travel.
