MakeMyTrip lays off 350 employees as cost rationalisation measure

Gurugram-based online travel aggregator (OTA) MakeMyTrip has let go of some 350 employees as it deals with the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“The staff rationalisation we have had to undertake is mapped to our future business strategy and is in no way a reflection of the work done by people in these teams,” executive chairman Deep Kalra and CEO Rajesh Magow said in a letter to the employees. 

The announcement comes shortly after Kalra announced that layoffs and salary cuts were to be expected across MakeMyTrip and group companies Goibibo and redBus as the company “reviewed operating costs” including people costs. 

Read: Pandemic exposes multi-layered vulnerabilities in OTAs and there is no immediate relief 

The letter had also stated that the leadership team had taken a pay cut of approximately 50% starting April 2020. The company had also announced cancelling discretionary spends including events, training and brand building for the quarter.

In the letter written today and reviewed by TechCircle, Kalra and Magow said, “..it’s become agonisingly clear that there are certain lines of business (LoBs) that are far deeply affected and will take much longer than the others to recover.” 

“To compassionately take care of the employees who have been impacted, we have tried to do our best to offer support including Mediclaim coverage for individuals and their families till the end of the year, leave encashment, gratuity, retaining the right to exercise part of RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) as applicable, retention of company laptops and outplacement support apart from salary payments as per their notice periods,” the letter read.

Employees in the international holidays and allied teams will be among the main operations affected by the job culls, confirmed a company spokesperson.

Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip employs close to 3,500 people across all brands, largely based in India. The OTA space has been among the worst-hit due to the national lockdown in view of Covid-19 and domestic flights and train travel resuming after a suspension of two months. There is no clarity yet on when international travel will open up.

Apart from OTA, companies in the travel and hospitality sector have also let go of several workers, with travel and hotel booking platform Ixigo announcing salary cuts, budget hotel chain OYO announcing layoffs for US business and Airbnb laying 25% of its global employee base among others.