Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) vs MakeMyTrip
IRCTC holds the stronger position because its legal monopoly over Indian rail ticketing keeps both AI systems and big tech companies locked out, while MakeMyTrip's booking layer is more exposed to AI tools handling search and booking directly.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)
State-owned monopoly running India's online rail ticketing, catering, and Rail Neer water
MakeMyTrip
India's largest online travel platform for flights, hotels, buses, and trains
Dimension by dimension
| Dimension | Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) | MakeMyTrip |
|---|---|---|
| Staying power of the core product | IRCTC is the only legal gateway to book Indian Railways tickets, catering, and rail tourism, a role protected by law rather than by customer preference. | MakeMyTrip is the largest travel booking platform in India but its core job, matching people to flights, hotels, and buses, is the type of task AI agents are starting to do directly. |
| Exposure to AI | AI is unlikely to absorb IRCTC's product because ticket issuance and rail bookings require its specific government-linked system. | AI partly absorbs MakeMyTrip's product since AI assistants can now search, compare, and book travel without needing a dedicated platform. |
| How easily a giant copies them | A large company cannot replicate IRCTC's position because the monopoly is set by government rule, not by technology or scale. | A large tech company is blocked from simply copying MakeMyTrip too, since travel supply deals and licensing take time to build. |
| Pressure from rivals | OTAs like Cleartrip, ixigo, and MakeMyTrip add convenience on top of IRCTC's system but cannot bypass it, so pressure stays modest. | There is no clear sign in the numbers that MakeMyTrip is losing customers to rivals right now. |
| Revenue growth | IRCTC's revenue from operations rose from 4,904 crore rupees in FY2024-25 to 5,215 crore rupees in FY2025-26, a modest single-digit increase. | MakeMyTrip's FY2026 gross bookings grew 10.4% and its FY2025 revenue grew 27.4%, both faster paces than IRCTC's. |
| Profitability trend | No profit figure is given for IRCTC in the data provided. | MakeMyTrip's FY2026 operating profit rose 30.1% year over year to $156.0 million. |
Questions people ask
- IRCTC vs MakeMyTrip which is safer from AI disruption
- IRCTC is marked unlikely to be absorbed by AI because its monopoly on rail ticketing sits outside what AI tools currently handle. MakeMyTrip is marked as partly exposed since AI booking assistants can already search and book travel without going through its platform.
- Can a big tech company replace IRCTC or MakeMyTrip
- Both are marked as blocked from being copied by a giant. IRCTC's block comes from government-granted exclusivity, while MakeMyTrip's comes from the time and relationships needed to build travel supply deals at its scale.
- Which company is growing faster IRCTC or MakeMyTrip
- MakeMyTrip shows faster growth, with FY2026 gross bookings up 10.4% and FY2025 revenue up 27.4%, alongside a 30.1% rise in operating profit. IRCTC's revenue from operations grew more slowly, from 4,904 crore rupees to 5,215 crore rupees.