High Altitude, Thin Margins: The Cleartrip Burn Story
Cleartrip, the online travel aggregator (OTA) under the Flipkart umbrella, is grappling with a severe profitability crisis. Despite a 70% surge in operating revenue to ₹169 crore in FY25, the company’s “unit economics” remain deeply in the red. A deep dive into its filings shows that Cleartrip spent ₹5.20 for every ₹1 of revenue earned during the last fiscal year.
The massive net loss of ₹651 crore was fueled by aggressive discounting, high employee benefit costs (₹239 crore), and a significant jump in payment gateway charges. While the company has managed to narrow its losses from the previous year, the cost of acquisition in the crowded OTA market — dominated by MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip — remains prohibitively high.
Can AI Turn the Tide?
Cleartrip is now banking on a pivot to “high-value” services and AI-driven features, such as “Price Trends” for fare prediction, to improve customer retention without heavy discounting. However, with industry veterans questioning the long-term viability of the brand, Cleartrip needs more than just revenue growth; it needs a path to sustainable unit economics.
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