Flight Centre Travel Group Limited provides travel retailing services for the leisure and corporate sectors in Australia, New Zealand, Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and internationally. The company offers leisure travel services for the niche sectors, as well as mass, youth, premium, and cruise markets; and corporate travel services for organizations of various sizes across industries, as well as supplies products to its national and international network, or travel retail outlets. It also provides tour operations, hotel management, and destination management services. In addition, the company offers other travel related services, including foreign currency exchange and travel academies; recruitment marketing and bike retailing; and employee benefit services. It provides its services primarily under the Flight Centre brand, as well as other travel brands, such as Student Flights, Travel Associates, Liberty Travel, Infinity Holidays, GOGO Vacations, FCm Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveller, Stage and Screen, and cievents. The company was formerly known as Flight Centre Limited and changed its name to Flight Centre Travel Group Limited in November 2013. Flight Centre Travel Group Limited was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in South Brisbane, Australia.

History

The company was co-founded by Graham Turner and Geoff Harris in 1982 and began with a store in Sydney. Flight Centre South Africa opened its first retail store in Eastgate, Bedfordview, Johannesburg on 17 Dec 1994. In 1995, Flight Centre UK and Flight Centre Canada opened.In December 2015, the company acquired StudentUniverse and a 70% stake in BYOjet. Additionally, in 2016, the company began online travel brand Aunt Betty. Together, BYOJet and Aunt Betty operate as "low cost" Australian online travel agents, providing flights and other services at lower prices than Flight Centre's retail locations.

In New Zealand, Flight Centre operates a number of brands including Cruiseabout, Student Flights, Travel Associates, FCM Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveller, Travel Money NZ, Travel Managers Group and Executive Travel Group.

Flight Centre was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a 80% decline in the company's share price , cancellation of a previously announced dividend, and a suspension in trading of shares from 23 March 2020 to 7 April 2020. In early 2020, Flight Centre announced that 6,000 staff would be made redundant or placed on unpaid leave globally, due to the effects of international travel restrictions in the pandemic. This included 3,800 staff in Australia. The New Zealand branch of the company made 250 employees redundant and temporarily closed 33 branches, out of a total of 1200 employees and 140 outlets around New Zealand. In June 2020, Flight Centre announced the redundancy of a further 1500 staff. In October 2020, the company announced the closure of a further 91 stores, with several hundred further redundancies.In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Flight Centre carried out an emergency rescue equity raising in April 2020 of $700 million at a price of $7.20 per share, or approximately 90% less than its August 2018 peak. In June 2020 it sought a further debt facility from the Bank of England under emergency COVID-19 schemes.

Mission

To be the market leader in the travel industry, providing customers with the highest quality travel services and products, while providing excellent customer service.

Vision

A world where everyone is able to travel and experience the world without financial or technical barriers.

Key Team

Ms. Melanie C. Waters-Ryan (Chief Exec. Officer of Supply)

Mr. James Kavanagh (Chief Exec. Officer of Leisure)

Mr. Steven Norris (Managing Director of EMEA)

Ms. Charlene Leiss (Managing Director of the Americas)

Mr. Geoff Harris (Founder)

Haydn Long (Investor & Media Relations Officer)

Mr. Trent Palelei (Head of Risk Manangement Division)

Recognition and Awards

Flight Centre has been recognised and awarded for a variety of achievements since its founding in 1982. In 2017 the company was awarded the Best Online Travel Agent at the Australian Travel Awards. The company was also awarded the Best Corporate Travel Management Company of the Year at the 2016 TTG Top Travel Agents Awards.