Jayride eyes 1 million trips this year off the back of post-covid travel boom

Airport transfers marketplace Jayride allows travellers to compare and book rides around the world, with 3,700+ ride service companies, servicing 1,600+ airports in 110+ countries around the world which cover 95% of the world’s airlines so that you can use it wherever on earth you go.

With the recent acquisition of AirportShuttles.com, two thirds of the company’s customers are based in the Northern Hemisphere, specifically Europe and the US – perfecting timing considering this Northern Hemisphere summer peak travel season is set to be potentially the largest market on record on for global airfares as post-Covid travel takes off.

“Jayride helps travellers to find and book their rides around the world wherever they’re going on earth,” Jayride (ASX:JAY) Co-founder and MD Rod Bishop said.

“Anywhere on earth you can find anything you like from a shared bus to a ride hailing brand to a luxury limousine for you or your family or your group of twenty people with your child seats or your meet and greets or whatever it is you need.”

“And what we’re seeing now is an incredible surge of bookings into Northern Hemisphere summer, that’s happening right now this quarter, started in March, it’s ongoing and should continue through July.

“People are taking to the skies again, primarily for leisure but also business. Its revenge travel, it’s things you’ve just got to do that you’ve been putting off for years, and it’s this amazing upswell of volume that’s happening right now that gives us very clear line of sight on some very exciting milestones.

“Each year Q4 is Jayride’s biggest quarter as the Northern Hemisphere summer peak season comes through, and we’re seeing that start to come through now. In each of the past two years Jayride grew trips 81% in Q4 vs Q3. Certainly, this Q4 promises to be the largest quarter in Jayride’s history.”

More than 1 million trips booked this year

The company closed Q3 strongly with passenger trips booked growing to a record high of 61K trips in March, and 734K trips run rate, and April FY23 to date is already larger, up +77% vs the prior corresponding period of April FY22, with May and June set to expand further.

“Our major milestones are to be a cash flow positive growth company operating millions of trips a year – and we have line of sight on both of those now,” Bishop said.

“Right now, with this Northern Hemisphere summer surge in demand and also with the ongoing structural shift for travellers to book their rides online. Travellers don’t want to stand in a taxi rank, and going forward they won’t have to.

“That long-lasting transition to online is a major trend we’re riding, and I think it will mean for us that not only is this Northern Hemisphere summer the biggest quarter Jayride has ever see, but that also our structural growth continues onwards from here.”

Bishop attributed the company’s success to the highly experienced team, and support from board of directors including chairman Rod Cuthbert.

“Rod is a world-renowned travel technology expert, he created Viator the tours and activities marketplace which was acquired by TripAdvisor, he was also the CEO of Rome2Rio which is an amazing travel aggregator and partner to Jayride. He brings his reputation and skills to our game,” he said.

No more waiting in a taxi rank

The company also provides ride booking as a turnkey service to the travel industry via travel agent giants like Booking.com and Flight Centre (ASX:FLT).

“We’re the largest such aggregator in the world, so these Tier 1 global travel brands use us to make a normal itinerary into a door-to-door itinerary,” Bishop said.

“A few years ago, you’d never book your flight online, you had to go to a physical store, but these days 80% of flights are booked online. Then the same transition happended with hotels, then the same with rental cars.

“In general travel booking moves online, and Jayride is helping to bring traveller rides booking online.

“Nobody really wants to be stuck in a taxi rank, and the airlines, the hotel brands, they would have loved to sell you a door-to-door itinerary. The thing that’s been missing is just a simple technology which makes it easy for them and which has already done all the work to aggregate all the rides and make every ride available in just one place – that’s Jayride.”

European, US and Asian markets covered

“In November we completed a placement from Fidelity, and we’ve used that money to really accelerate the delivery of key platform initiatives that make our product better ahead of this Northern Hemisphere summer,” Bishop said.

“Q4 will be the first time we’ve gone to market in Europe with our new brand, we’ve relaunched the whole platform.

“It’s the first time we’ll go to market with our new acquisition. We bought a website called airportshuttles.com, which is an amazing brand for the US market.

“It’s also the first time we’ve gone to market with amazing coverage in Asian destinations, we’ve got more Australians to Bali than ever before, and that’s on top of more US travellers to Cancun, and more European travellers to Portugal and the Canary Islands and these sorts of beautiful holiday locations. All of that widespread global demand is coming through right now on to all these new initiatives and platforms.

“It’s a really exciting time to be in the travel industry.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Jayride Limited, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.