Booking Holdings Sees New Flight Offering as a Key Growth Driver

Live now in 27 countries, flights on Booking.com, which shunned them for many years in favor of hotels, is suddenly a key part of Booking Holdings' strategy, and a source of growth potential.

Booking Holdings' flight bookings leapfrogged 131 percent in the third quarter, compared with the third quarter of pre-pandemic 2019, and the bump was driven by flights booked on its U.S.-based Priceline brand, and also the new Booking.com offering.

Priceline is based in the U.S., which was Booking Holdings' strongest country in the third quarter. Priceline has offered flights since its founding in 1997, but Booking.com focused on hotels in its early days, and only began providing flights in 2019 — just before the pandemic almost shuttered the airline industry for a time.

The company said about one-fourth of the people buying flights on Booking.com are new customers, and so Booking sees substantial potential in turning them them into repeat customers through its mobile app and Genius loyalty program, for example. And once these new customers book flights,