Flight discounts have fallen in the quarter gone by as travel is back with a vengeance after the two years of COVID-19-induced lockdowns. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Easy Trip Planners’ co-founder, Prashant Pitti, said on Tuesday reasoned that the competitive intensity is decreasing and added that the second quarter is also generally the weakest because of the monsoon disruptions.

The company grew over 25 percent in the second quarter beating competitors, who majorly saw flat growth in this period.

“Last year, our average discount was around 4.5 percent. This year, the discounts in the quarter one was around 2.6 percent, and in the second quarter, it was 3.1 percent. So we look forward to continuing with the same set of discounts. The competition intensity is surely decreasing because of which the discounting can go down,” Pitti explained.

Convenience fees are seen as another 'hidden' cost by some travellers. Most travel operators (OTAs) charge anywhere between Rs 300 and Rs 600 per passenger for this but Easemytrip is trying to distinguish itself by waving this off via a discount coupon.

The stock was locked in a 20 percent upper circuit yesterday, November 21, as the stock turned ex-date for the 3:1 bonus issue and 1:1 stock split. The company is also looking at growing inorganically in hotels, buses, trains, holidays, and cabs.

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The management believes that the second half of the current financial year (FY23) should be better going forward.

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“Our market share in the airline industry on online travel agencies (OTA) space would be somewhere around 22-24 percent now. Our target is, in the next three years we want to be the leading airline OTA in India, which would basically happen once we cross about 40 percent of market share,” said Pitti.

For the entire interview, watch the accompanying video

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(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)