News Roundup: Travel Portals Claim Profits; No Conflict Of Interest, Says TRAI Chairman

Despite a fall in air travellers, four travel portals claim to have made a profit for the quarter ended 31 March, according to this Mint story. MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Travelguru and Yatra claim to have made a profit in the latest quarter. MakeMyTrip claims to have made a net profit of Rs1.5 crore for the quarter. Others did not offer numbers. While industry observers are sceptical about the claim–India’s airlines saw a 10% drop in passenger traffic last fiscal–portals say other high-margin services such as hotels, cruises and package holidays, help them make up for the loss in travel bookings.

New Trai chairman J.S. Sarma put an end to the controversy over the conflict of interest involved in him, a former TDSAT member who has sat in judgment over Trai rulings, now becoming chairman of the telecom regulator. Sarma told Business Standard that he will recuse himself from decisions involving his past judgments. This means if Trai wants to appeal against a TDSAT verdict, that decision need not be cleared by Sarma.

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