: Expedia is benefiting as gross travel bookings are up online

“The first quarter saw strong travel demand driven by increasing international travel, major city travel, and the reopening in Asia. Our performance was enhanced by greater testing velocity and accelerating deployment of [artificial intelligence] and [machine learning], including our recent integration of ChatGPT into our iOS experience,” Expedia Group Chief Executive Peter Kern said in a statement announcing the results.

Expedia reported a fiscal first-quarter net loss of $145 million, or 95 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $122 million, or 78 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings were a loss of 20 cents a share.

Revenue soared to $2.67 billion from $2.25 billion a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average net earnings of 2 cents a share on revenue of $2.66 billion.

Shares of Expedia have inched up 2% so far this year, while the broader S&P 500
SPX,
-0.72%
has improved nearly 6%.

Gross travel bookings soared 44% to a record $39.4 billion at Booking Holdings Inc. 
BKNG,
-1.61%,
though its stock was flat in after-hours trading because the company’s adjusted Ebitda of $586 million was short of the consensus estimate from analysts of $627 million.

“We saw a strong start to the year with first quarter room nights and gross bookings reaching our highest quarterly levels ever and both metrics surpassing our previous expectations,” Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said in a statement.

Booking Holdings reported fiscal first-quarter net earnings of $266 million, or $7 a share, compared with a net loss of $700 million, or $17.10 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings were $11.60 a share.

Revenue hurtled 40% to $3.78 billion from $2.7 billion a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average net earnings of $10.57 a share on revenue of $3.74 billion.

Shares of Booking Holdings have soared 29% so far this year.