For years, Dreamfolks has been on the rise, taking business away from Collinson/Priority Pass in India to become the dominant lounge access intermediary in the country. This was achieved by offering pricing that was India-specific, and hence, banks began to commission more and more of their lounge access programmes with Dreamfolks over Collinson. However, Dreamfolks was also an Indian intermediary, and now they are being challenged in the business they helped scale, by some of the lounges themselves.
Axis Bank and ICICI Bank Shift some business away from Dreamfolks
The official word from Dreamfolks, tucked away in regulatory filings, confirms that “certain service programmes” with both Axis Bank and ICICI Bank have been discontinued as of July 1, 2025. While they’ve been quick to reiterate that their overall contracts with these banks remain valid, the phrase “likely to be material in nature” regarding the financial impact certainly catches the eye.
ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are among India’s top 4 card issuers, so any move they make will impact Dreamfolks directly in terms of revenue (if they cannot provide lounge access, Dreamfolks don’t make money themselves because their fee is charged when lounge access is consumed). For instance, one of the products that Axis Bank appears to have taken away from Dreamfolks is the wildly popular Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card. The section where I can generate a QR Code for lounge access has been gone for over a week. I also presented the Atlas to the Encalm Lounge at Delhi T1 on June 30, 2025, at approximately 7 PM. Although the card lists T1 Delhi Airport Encalm Lounge as accessible, the reception staff informed me that they would not accept it, prompting me to pull out the Olympus for them.
On the other hand, many of their other products, which are powered via the web access portal, continue to be seen and live for now.
Dreamfolks has about 90% of the business of facilitating lounge access in India, which is sometimes provided by the network (Visa/MasterCard/Diners Club/American Express/RuPay) and sometimes by the Issuer Bank. Still, it comes down to Dreamfolks to determine whether your card is eligible or not, and then they let you in.
If you remember, the service disruption back in September 2024 that left travellers stranded outside lounges? That incident prompted the banks to focus on more direct and, presumably, more reliable alternatives, prodded by the airport operators who wanted to eliminate the intermediary.
For Dreamfolks, this is undoubtedly a challenge. A significant chunk of their revenue has historically come from these lounge services. While they are actively diversifying into other lifestyle services, such as meet-and-assist, spa services, and even ground transportation, the lounge aggregation business has been their bread and butter. The company stated it’s “committed to taking requisite actions for mitigating the above impact,” which suggests they’re not sitting idle. On the other hand, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, the company hinted that it has been receiving feelers for an acquisition as well, something it does not want to pursue. The chatter around their acquisition by a specific large airport operator has been well-known in the aviation retail circles for a while now. Of course, it is not up to me to confirm or deny those rumours, but the CEO of the company has just done so.
Bottomline
ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are withdrawing some of their credit card programmes for lounge access with Dreamfolks, a listed intermediary company in the space, which facilitates about 90% of Indian lounge access business. Amongst the programmes taken away is Axis Bank Atlas, one of India’s largest travel cards by numbers.
What do you make of the chaos that is coming with people not being able to get through the lounges as of July 1?
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Yeah. Axis Atlas lounge is showing not available. Hope they sort this out soon.