The crisis in the travel sector did not last long at one of the largest booking platforms in the world. The parent company of Amsterdam-based Booking.com had 13 percent more income last year than in 2019, the year before corona. Last month even more bookings came in than ever before.
At the start of the corona crisis, Booking still appealed for government support through the NOW scheme. The support of 65 million euros was repaid after a fuss about the bonuses that the company had paid to the top despite the crisis. Thousands of employees in the Netherlands lost their jobs in recent years, because the company’s revenue model was hit hard by the travel restrictions. A quarter of jobs worldwide were cut.
But the past year was again full of bookings, so that Booking received more than 16 billion euros in revenue. At the bottom of the line, a profit of 2.9 billion euros remained. That is still almost 40 percent lower than in 2019.
Airbnb and aviation
The fact that things are going a lot better in the travel sector can also be seen in the figures from Airbnb. That company booked a record profit of 1.8 billion euros. The airlines are also doing a lot better. For example, Air France-KLM made a profit last year for the first time since 2019.
- Booking reorganizes, customer service moved to another company
- Booking pays back wage support after a fuss about bonuses
