Tinkoff Bank has become the first Russian bank to create its own online travel agency, called Tinkoff Travel. The company targets 10% of the sale of air tickets via internet.

Kommersant reports that the agency has already connected with all large booking system and the Tinkoff Travel air tickets are available on Aviasales and other search engines.

According to a bank representative, Tinkoff invested around USD 2m in the project. The funds were allocated to the salaries of the staff, as well as to the purchase of provided software and development of the agency’s own.

Tinkoff Bank has been expanding in this direction since April of 2018. Initially it worked as a white label enterprise, performing as sub-agent for sale of air tickets of other agencies.

Currently Tinkoff Travel sells 70-80,000 tickets a month, half of which are bought by the bank’s clients. Tinkoff intends to include sale of interurban and aeroexpress tickets, as well as transfers. The services will be integrated into Tinkoff Bank mobile app.


According to the experts, profitability of air ticket sale business is estimated at 1-3%. However, the profits from ticket sale are not an objective on its own for Tinkoff. The bank believes the business can be a good channel for attracting new clients and a way to increase the interest for brand cards.

Tinkoff Bank’s travel project is the first online Russian travel agency created independently by a bank. Alfa-Bank and Sberbank are also developing while label travel projects. According to Kommersant, Sberbank also plans to get involved in independent work in the sector and Alfa-Bank wants to continue cooperating with online travel agencies.

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