Amazon expands travel offerings in India with RedBus partnership

Amazon is building out its travel business in India. After launching flight ticketing in May, the e-commerce giant has now added bus ticketing through a partnership with MakeMyTrip brand RedBus, the country’s largest bus ticketing platform that works with operators covering more than 50,000 routes.

In addition to one-click payment through their Amazon account, users get access to RedBus’ ratings and live tracking systems and can see the bus number and contact information prior to departure.

“Over the course of [the] time Amazon app has become one-stop destination for shopping and payment needs of our customers. They love the convenience we offer of shopping and paying ‐ all in one single app,” says Vikas Bansal, director of Amazon Pay.

“Today, we are pleased to announce the booking of bus tickets on Amazon. We are excited to partner with RedBus and move another step forward in making life easy for our customers.”

Media outlets in India are reporting Amazon is also in talks with Booking.com to offer hotel reservations and with IRCTC, the government-owned railway reservation system, to offer train tickets, but neither Amazon nor Booking.com would confirm this. 

The “Bus Tickets” link is available in Amazon Pay, next to “Flights,” and takes users to a search page powered by RedBus. Searches can be filtered by time of day, by bus type (such as with air-conditioning) and by onboard amenities such as charging stations, Wi-Fi and blankets.

"We are excited to partner with Amazon to bring bus ticketing to its large customer base to further widen and deepen the penetration of online bus ticketing in our country,” says Manoj Agarwala, senior vice president of RedBus.

“With this partnership, we are offering yet another avenue to our bus operator partners to distribute their inventory and help grow their sales and occupancy.”

In addition to India, RedBus operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Peru and Colombia, but Amazon did not comment when asked if it may add ticketing in those countries as well.