Key Points
- Skyscanner proves metasearch can still be highly profitable: ~$660M revenue in 2025 (+24%), a 32% operating margin, and a ~$3.5B implied internal valuation—almost double Trip.com’s 2016 purchase price—despite years of Google competition.
- Kiwi.com’s economics are under pressure: revenue down 20% from its 2023 peak to $264M, with improved operating profit driven almost entirely by two restructurings and cost cuts rather than growth, amid negative equity and a $116M convertible bond due June 2027.
- Wego has scaled revenue rapidly (roughly doubling in two years to $63.5M) but at the cost of profitability, with operating margin compressed to just 1.1%, reflecting its push closer to transactions via products like Book on Wego.
Summary
Newly surfaced private company filings offer a rare, detailed look at the economics of three flight-search players—Skyscanner (UK), Kiwi.com (Czech Republic), and Wego (Singapore)—each pursuing a different model of organizing fragmented flight inventory just as AI begins to reshape the search interface. Skyscanner, the classic metasearch aggregator now 99.6% owned by Trip.com, is thriving: roughly $660M in 2025 revenue (up 24%), a 32% operating margin, and an implied internal valuation of about $3.5B—nearly double what Trip.com paid in 2016—undercutting the notion that Google killed travel metasearch. Kiwi.com, a General Atlantic-controlled OTA built around virtual interlining, has taken a very different path: revenue has fallen 20% from its 2023 peak to $264M, with operating profit improving only through two rounds of cost cuts, all against the backdrop of negative equity, a $116M convertible bond maturing June 2027, and unusually detailed investor-return provisions. Wego, meanwhile, has roughly doubled revenue in two years to $63.5M but has seen operating margin compress to near zero (1.1%). Together they illustrate three divergent outcomes in the most price-transparent, Google- and AI-exposed corner of travel.
