Yatra Online (NASDAQ:YTRA) management said demand trends in India’s travel market remained generally healthy during the fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2025, despite a notable airline disruption that drove cancellations and deferred some corporate group travel. On the company’s fiscal Q3 2026 results call held February 12, 2026, co-founder and Executive Chairman Dhruv Shringi and newly appointed CEO Siddhartha Gupta described a quarter shaped by a divergence between domestic and international travel patterns and by operational challenges tied to flight schedule disruptions.
Industry backdrop: domestic volatility, international strength
Shringi said the third quarter is typically a strong period for leisure travel in India, and management saw “healthy demand” overall. However, the company highlighted short-term headwinds in domestic travel during December, including airline operational challenges that led to a spike in cancellations. Management said domestic travel recovered in the second half of December and that improving patterns continued into January.
Policy and technology themes highlighted
Shringi also pointed to India’s recent Union Budget as a positive signal for the travel and tourism sector, describing it as a shift toward building a more structural and sustainable ecosystem. He cited the rationalization of tax collection at source on overseas tour packages to a uniform 2% rate as a change that could lower upfront friction and support outbound travel demand. He also referenced government emphasis on domestic connectivity and infrastructure investments, along with initiatives aimed at hospitality skilling and talent development.
On the corporate travel side, management discussed growing demand for digitized travel procurement tools and AI-driven platforms that offer end-to-end automation, self-booking, and integrated expense management with compliance and cost controls. Shringi said Yatra’s self-booking platform, supported by an AI bot and an expanded expense management solution, is positioned to benefit from that shift.
Operational performance: growth in air and hotels, MICE deferrals
Gupta said that despite an “industry-wide disruption” in the airline sector during the quarter, Yatra delivered growth in its air ticketing business, helped by seasonally strong B2C demand. Air ticketing gross bookings increased 22% year-over-year, supported by 14% growth in air passengers, which management said exceeded industry growth of about 1%. Take rates improved to 7.1% from 6.2% as the quarter skewed more toward B2C.
In hotels and packages, Gupta said performance remained healthy, though the company saw a temporary impact in MICE and corporate events as some bookings were deferred due to flight disruptions. He attributed the disruption to the IndiGo Airlines schedule in India and said the impact was a modest one-time effect, with part of the activity expected to roll into the fourth quarter. Gross bookings for the segment rose 20% year-over-year excluding the impact of MICE deferments, and management said hotels would have grown over 30% on a standalone basis, supported by corporate and affiliate channels.
Gupta added that gross take rates in hotels and packages moderated to 11.7% from 12.2% year-over-year due to mix changes, while gross margins improved to 10.2% from 9.7%, reflecting what he called prudent discounting in B2C and better supplier margin realization for corporate hotels.
The company’s B2B-to-B2C mix was approximately 60/40 for the quarter, compared with a nine-month average of 65/35 in favor of B2B.
Corporate travel momentum and expense management uptake
Yatra’s corporate travel business continued to expand, with management reporting 40 new corporate client onboardings during the quarter. Gupta said those new clients collectively added an annual billing potential of INR 2.2 billion.
However, management said the flight disruption hit during the “highly productive” first two weeks of December, when corporate travel typically peaks ahead of holidays. Yatra said some MICE travel was deferred into Q4 and some group travel shifted into Q1 of the next fiscal year due to uncertainty. Gupta also noted that the disruption led to incremental working capital deployment because vendor advances had already been paid for MICE groups, though he said the impacts were largely limited to December and that the business is back on track.
Gupta highlighted early traction for Yatra’s expense management solution, saying the company has onboarded eight customers to the platform. He described the solution as both a “door opener” for new accounts and an upsell opportunity within existing corporate relationships.
Looking ahead, Gupta said Yatra has sharpened its go-to-market approach by separating sales efforts across large enterprises and small and medium enterprises, supported by a new inside sales team. He also said the company’s “farming” team secured multi-year renewals from some of its largest customers during the quarter. Gupta tied future progress to the pace of technology innovation and said investments in product and tech talent are beginning to show results.
Financial results: revenue growth and balance sheet figures
With CFO Anuj Sethi unavailable due to a medical emergency, Gupta reviewed the quarter’s financial performance. On a consolidated basis, revenue from operations increased 10% year-over-year to INR 2,577 million (approximately $29 million), which management attributed to steady demand across key segments and robust growth in air ticketing.
- Air ticketing: Passenger volume grew 13% year-over-year to 1,491 thousand; gross bookings rose 22% to INR 16,931 million (about $188 million). Air adjusted margins increased 40% to INR 1,195 million (about $13 million), with adjusted margin percentage improving to 7.1% from 6.2%.
- Hotels and packages: Hotel room nights grew 22% to 508,000; gross bookings increased 20% to INR 4,306 million (about $47 million). Adjusted margin expanded 15% to INR 502 million (about $6 million).
On liquidity, the company reported cash, cash equivalents, and term deposits of INR 2,042 million (about $23 million) as of December 31, 2025. Gross debt increased modestly to INR 583 million (about $6 million) from INR 546 million as of March 31, 2025.
In the Q&A, management characterized the quarter’s revenue growth deceleration as seasonal and driven by holidays and the December flight disruptions, rather than structural. The company also said it had not seen macro headwinds such as tariffs affecting the MICE business, and noted expectations that business travel could scale further between India and Europe and the U.S. Management reiterated confidence that it has “barely scratched the surface” in corporate travel, citing a large addressable market relative to Yatra’s current corporate customer count.
About Yatra Online (NASDAQ:YTRA)
Yatra Online, Inc operates as an online travel company in India and internationally. It operates in Air Ticketing, and Hotels and Packages, and Other Services segments. The company provides travel-related services, including domestic and international air ticketing, hotel bookings, homestays, holiday packages, bus ticketing, rail ticketing, cab bookings, and ancillary services for leisure and business travelers. It also offers various services, including exploring and searching comprises web and mobile platforms that enable customers to explore and search flights, hotels, holiday packages, buses, trains, and activities through its website, www.yatra.com.
