By launching their own booking apps, major airlines are encroaching on the online travel agency (OTA) market, which is currently dominated by incumbent independents, but analysts say the new entrants are unlikely to have a major impact.
Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia launched a “super app” in Malaysia in 2020 and expanded to Indonesia in 2022.
Domestic airline Lion Group, which includes Lion Air, Batik Air, Wings Air and its affiliate Super Air Jet, also launched an OTA service called BookCabin in October last year.
Lion Group controls 65% of the domestic aviation market, followed by flag carrier Garuda Indonesia Group with 26.6%, and the rest by other airlines.
However, an analysis by consulting firm Redseer noted that the local OTA market may not be as welcoming to new entrants as it tends to follow a winner-take-all pattern.
Across regions such as the US, Europe, China and India, the top two OTAs control over 70% of the online travel market.
“What's even more interesting is that across the region, the top companies are often two to three times larger than the next largest company. This pattern holds true in Indonesia, as seen in the examples of Traveloka and Tiket.com,” the report said.