Cleartrip’s losses widen to Rs 805 Cr in FY26; spends Rs 897 Cr on discount and cashbacks

Flipkart-owned Cleartrip’s losses widened 28% year-on-year to Rs 805 crore in FY26, as the travel platform continued to spend heavily on cashbacks and discounts, which rose 47.6% to Rs 897.5 crore in the fiscal year.

Following 70% growth in FY25, Cleartrip’s net operating revenue growth slowed to 20.8% in FY26, reaching Rs 198.3 crore compared with Rs 164.1 crore in the previous fiscal year, according to its annual filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Founded in 2006, Cleartrip operates an online travel booking platform that allows users to book flights, hotels, buses and holiday packages. It earns revenue through service charges, commissions and incentives from travel partners, while offering cashbacks and discounts to attract customers.

The company’s revenue includes service charges, commissions and incentives, adjusted for cashbacks and discounts offered to customers. Service charges grew 37.5% to Rs 702.2 crore in FY26, while commission and incentives rose 52.3% to Rs 378.4 crore.

However, cashbacks and discounts increased 47.6% year-on-year to Rs 897.5 crore from Rs 608.2 crore in FY25. This continued to weigh on net revenue, which stood at Rs 198.3 crore after accounting for these customer incentives and other operating income. 

The firm also earned Rs 58 crore from other operating and non-operating sources, which took its overall income to Rs 241.2 crore during the last fiscal year.

Looking at Cleartrip’s major expenses in FY26. The Flipkart-owned company allocated the largest share of its costs to employee benefits, which rose 7.8% year-on-year to Rs 258 crore. This includes Rs 68 crore in ESOP expenses. Excluding ESOPs, its employee benefit expenses stood at Rs 190 crore.

Cleartrip’s finance costs surged 44.4% to Rs 203.4 crore, while commission and brokerage expenses increased 33.2% to Rs 171.5 crore. 

The company also spent Rs 133.8 crore on advertising, which rose 31% year-on-year, while payment gateway charges rose 39.8% to Rs 110 crore.

Additionally, Rs 334 crore was reported under miscellaneous expenses, with no further breakdown disclosed. Overall, Cleartrip’s total expenses increased 21.9% to Rs 1,045.9 crore in FY26 from Rs 858.2 crore in FY25.

Higher finance costs, payment gateway charges, commission expenses and heavy spending on cashbacks and discounts added to the pressure on Cleartrip’s bottom line. As a result, the company’s losses widened 28% year-on-year to Rs 804.7 crore in FY26 from Rs 628.8 crore in FY25, despite growth in service charges and commissions and incentives.

Cleartrip reported an EBITDA loss of Rs 640.3 crore in FY26, with an EBITDA margin of -322.9%. Its expense-to-earning ratio also increased to Rs 5.27 in FY26 from Rs 5.23 in FY25.

As of March 2026, it had current assets of Rs 743 crore, including Rs 38 crore in cash and bank balances.

The firm’s parent company, the Flipkart Group posted Rs 1.46 lakh crore revenue in FY26, while its losses stood at Rs 8,468 crore during the period.

While Cleartrip’s losses might be disproportionate to its revenue contribution to the parent firm, perhaps some of the blame lies with the parent only. From a firm that was sharply differentiated for a brilliant UI and service standards, Cleartrip today has been reduced to a ‘me too’ expected to benefit from the river of traffic coming Flipkart’s way. If there is one thing the form is known for, we are not aware of it. Subsuming it under Flipkart, even as the site exists independently for the sake of it, is not taking it anywhere. Profitable segments like Holidays require dedicated efforts, and the kind of synergies one would have expected from Flipkart don’t seem to have materialised. With the ability to launch and scale up at controlled costs seemingly lost in these giant firms, we simply cannot see how Cleartrip breaks out as it once threatened to do, albeit with heavy losses at that time as well.