Amazon Steps Closer To Super App Dream With Flight Booking Service

Ecommerce major Amazon has announced domestic flight bookings on its platform coupled with cashbacks and low cancellation fees.

The company has partnered with online travel platform Cleartrip to launch this service. “We are excited to partner with Cleartrip and share their passion of creating best in class travel experiences,” Shariq Plasticwala, Director, Amazon Pay, said in a statement.

Amazon is offering cashbacks on first time booking for both prime and non-prime members between May 17th to May 31. The minimum cashback amount being INR 400 (non-prime) and INR 800 (prime).

Further, the company will not take any additional cancellation on the booking cancellations other than the airline cancellation fees.

“We’re delighted to add domestic flight bookings enabling customers to do more with their Amazon app and for prime members to get more value from their membership,” Plasticwala added.

With this, Amazon app will now allow Indian users to make payments, pay utility bills, recharge mobile plans and book domestic flights, in addition to shopping.

In April, Amazon was reported to be planning beta testing its flight bookings in collaboration with Cleartrip.

Amazon’s Super App Plans

In April, Amazon was reported to be planning a super app in India, which enables end-to-end fulfillment for customers ranging from ticketing services to food delivery.

In August 2018, the company acquihired Tapzo, an “all-in-one” app that aggregates 35+ different apps in one place, across categories such as cabs, food, recharge, bill payment, news, cricket, horoscopes, and more.

The company has a cumulative base of around 150 Mn customers, but maintains nearly 20-25 Mn monthly unique customers. With its super app plans, the company may be looking to increase the number of daily as well as monthly active customers.

Amazon reported a 17% growth in net sales reaching $59.7 Bn in the first quarter, compared with $51 Bn in first quarter 2018. The company’s operating income increased to $4.4 Bn in theQ1 2019, compared with operating income of $1.9 Bn in Q1 2018.

Amazon was recently reported to be strengthening its data centre business in India by reinforcing Amazon Data Services India (ADSI) with an INR 1,380 Cr ($198.2 Mn) investment.