Spain's eDreams sees core earnings almost doubling by 2026

(Reuters) - Spanish online travel booking company eDreams ODIGEO on Friday said it expects its core earnings to almost double by 2026 as it keeps adding more paying subscribers to its premium service.

The company expects its cash earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to rise to between 215 million euros ($223.69 million) and 220 million euros in the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2026, it said in a presentation to investors, up from 121 million euros in the period ending in March 2024.

While subscriptions are common in other industries, such as music, television and telecoms, eDreams pioneered the model for the travel industry. Paying subscribers have access to additional discounts on airlines and hotel bookings on eDreams' websites.

Over the past few years, the subscription programme has become the company's main driver of profitability.

The company expects to raise its number of paying subscribers to 8.25 million by the end of March 2026 up from 6.5 million at the end of September 2024.

It said it then expects the number of subscribers to rise at least 10% in the following two years.

($1 = 0.9612 euros)

(Reporting by Natalia Siniawski and Javi West Larrañaga, editing by Inti Landauro)