Amazon is adding flight bookings to its growing list of services in India, one of its biggest global markets. The company announced this week that Indian users can now book domestic flights through its website or mobile app in the country. The service will be available through Amazon Pay, the service that also allows users to pay for things like utility bills and cellphone subscriptions.
Amazon (AMZN) has partnered with Indian travel website Cleartrip on flight bookings. The service is only available in India at the moment, and Amazon declined to comment on whether it plans to roll it out to other countries.
“Customers are already using Amazon beyond shopping,” Shariq Plasticwala, director for Amazon Pay in India. “We’re delighted to add domestic flight bookings, enabling customers to do more with their Amazon app and for Prime members to get more value from their membership,” he added.
The move reflects Amazon’s desire to broaden its business in one of its biggest markets outside the United States. India has more than 600 million internet users and nearly 800 million yet to come online, an enormous user base that Silicon Valley’s biggest firms are racing to tap into.
Amazon has committed more than $5 billion to growing its India business, and is forging ahead despite new restrictions that could hurt its operations in the country. The company last year launched a version of its mobile app in Hindi, India’s most popular language, and has significantly expanded the Indian content on its Amazon Prime Video streaming platform.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/21/tech/amazon-india-flight-bookings/index.html
