Fliggy, Alibaba Group’s travel platform, has launched a new round of layoffs. Multiple Fliggy employees revealed that the company began staff cuts in June, affecting various roles including development, testing and product management. The impact varied across departments, with some employees asked to leave on the same day of notification. The severance package followed the standard N+1 compensation formula, where N represents the number of monthly salaries calculated based on employees’ years of service.
A laid-off Fliggy employee said that within the transportation business unit, reduction rate varied across roles such as testing, development and product positions, with a more than 30% overall layoff rate.
A current Fliggy employee said that within the CTO business line newly launched in December 2025, the R&D team saw a workforce reduction rate of 40% to 50%, while the overall layoff rate across the CTO line stood at approximately 25%.
Another Fliggy developer said that four out of nine members in his team were laid off. He added that data from DingTalk staff records showed the CTO line had 1,244 employees before the adjustment and 916 afterward, representing a reduction of around 26%. The cuts mainly affected front-end and back-end developers as well as testing roles. However, the headcount of the business line slightly rebounded to 929 as of July 9.
The rapid spread of reports surrounding this round of workforce adjustments is closely linked to two major factors.
First, Alibaba Group’s organizational restructuring. On June 23, Alibaba announced that Fliggy and Ele.me would be integrated into its China E-commerce Business Group, allowing the group to coordinate resources across the two businesses.
Industry observers believe that this integration aims to strengthen business collaboration, improve operational efficiency and tighten control over labor costs. As a result, Fliggy has begun targeted workforce optimization to improve efficiency across different business units.
Second, intensifying competition in China’s online travel agency (OTA) industry. Platforms under the Trip.com Group currently account for more than 60% of China’s online travel market, while Fliggy and Meituan Travel together hold less than 30%, leaving both platforms in a long-term pursuit position.
Revenue from outbound travel and long-haul air ticket businesses has been affected by external market conditions, while excess staffing accumulated during previous expansion phases has added further pressure. As a result, cost reduction and efficiency improvement have become common strategies across the OTA sector.
From a business perspective, Fliggy’s core strengths lie in attracting young attracting, serving cross-border travel demand and developing distinctive homestay offerings. However, it remains less competitive in key profit-generating segments such as long-haul air tickets and high-end hotel bookings. With limited standalone profitability, the platform has historically relied on traffic support from Alibaba’s broader ecosystem.
