New Delhi, NFAPost: Government-owned train ticketing platform Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and online bus ticket booking platform redBus have signed an agreement to offer bus ticketing facility on IRCTC’s online platforms.
The association marked IRCTC’s foray into bus ticketing, apart from train, flight and holiday booking. IRCTC caters to about 9 million train tickets every day.
Users of IRCTC website will now be able to book intercity bus tickets on the platform, from a collection of over 2600 private bus operators and around 24000 daily bus services across the country, provided by redBus.
Daily booking
With this integration, IRCTC will host about 1.2 million bus seats daily across Sleeper/Non-sleeper and AC/Non-AC buses.
Users of IRCTC will also get access to features such as information on amenities available in the bus, choice onboarding and dropping points and also choosing buses covered under redBus Safety+ program that guides travellers on choosing the best and safest bus option available on their route.
Passengers will also be able to access details like bus number and contact information of the bus staff prior to departure. Bus ticket booking will also be available on the IRCTC Rail Connect app soon.
A behavioural shift has been evident since the easing of lockdown in September 2020, where preference for online bus booking has witnessed a rise. This is primarily due to the safety and convenience aspects associated with online booking, compared to offline modes of ticket purchase.
Secure service
There has also been a surge in travel from Tier 2 and 3 cities and towns since September 2020, resulting in them contributing about 62% of the current bookings (up from 56% during pre-COVID period) for redBus.
Speaking on the association, redBus CEO Prakash Sangam said the company is delighted to partner with IRCTC to offer travellers a convenient and secure means to book bus tickets.
“IRCTC is the most preferred platform for millions of travellers to book their train tickets, and now with redBus$B!G(J integration within IRCTC website and app, customers of IRCTC get access to the widest range of bus options to complete their travel,” said Prakash Sangam.
Operator partner
Prakash Sangam said he is happy to provide to the company’s bus operator partners another significant channel to distribute and liquidate their inventory.
“Online booking of bus tickets has witnessed a huge spike in demand during the course of the pandemic, especially in tier 2 and 3 cities and towns and this association acts as a catalyst to further fuel growth in the sector,” said Prakash Sangam.
redBus was founded in 2006 in India and today is the world$B!G(Js largest online bus ticketing platform. After having solved complex problems of bus customers in India, redBus also launched operations in Singapore and Malaysia in 2015 and acquired a majority stake in Peru based bus ticketing platform Busportal (now redBus.Pe) in the subsequent year. With this acquisition, redBus successfully launched operations in Latin America markets, Peru & shortly thereafter, Colombia.
MakeMyTrip group
redBus has globally sold more than 180 million bus tickets till date and has a customer base of around 20 million users. redBus is now part of the MakeMyTrip group (Nasdaq, MMYT) which is the largest travel aggregator in India with offerings across categories such as Flights, Hotels, Holiday Packages, etc.
The business owns three products – redBus™, redBus Plus™ and redBus Partner™, which come together to serve and address the fragmented bus industry across geographies. redBus™ is the popular consumer-facing travel brand enabling customers to buy bus tickets online.
Consumers can access redBus on the web (redbus.in, redbus.my, redbus.sg redbus.id, redbus.pe and redbus.co). They can also download the high rated redBus mobile app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Cloud-based solution
The company enables customers to search for bus services on a route of his/her choice, reserve a seat and make a payment to confirm the booking, thus bringing the seller and buyer on a single platform to facilitate easy bus booking.
redProWin™ is a cloud-based solution built for bus operators. Approximately 2500+ bus operators in India, SEA and Latin America use this platform for their day to day operations.
The revolutionary inventory management software ensures seat realization and resource utilisation, thus improving revenue and profitability for bus operators.
Over the years, through the use of engineering & data analytics, redBus has offered features such as LIVE bus tracking, dynamic pricing, customer relationship management, etc., which have helped bus operators improve operational efficiency as well as service quality.
redBus Partner™ is a GDS for bus inventory distribution and is used by more than 20,000 retail agents and 200+ OTAs to sell bus tickets to their customers.
