Flight Centre Travel Group, the parent company of FCM and Corporate Traveller, has reported a return to profitability for its global corporate business, with gross total transaction value (TTV) in June above pre-Covid levels.
The Australia-based company released its 2022 financial year (01 July 2021 to 30 June 2022) earnings on Thursday and in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange reported AU$13.5 million (€9.4 million) profit for its global corporate business, with TTV, transaction volumes and revenue “outpacing” broader recovery of the business travel sector.
The company reported high client retention and growth, having secured new accounts worth approximately AU$2.5 billion (€1.75 billion) in annual spend during FY22. Total annualised wins during the pandemic amounted to AU$5.8 billion.
Flight Centre Corporate CEO, Chris Galanty, said: “This emphatic rebound signifies the importance of meeting people and customers face-to-face despite the enormous logistical challenges currently existing in the industry.
Following the easing of travel restrictions, Galanty attributed the company’s “swift” recovery to its “customer-centric” approach and ongoing investments in digital technology and staff to “deal with anticipated demand”.
“The ongoing disruption impacting the wider industry has further reinforced the need for the support of a very professional travel management company to minimise these frictions,” he added.
Overall, the company – which includes leisure travel brands Flight Centre, Topdeck, Discova and Travel Associates – reported a loss of AU$183.1 million, a marked improvement from the AU$337.8 million loss reported in 2021.
All geographic and business segments, apart from Asia, returned to profit in Q4, with the EMEA region profitable for the full financial year.
Corporate business in Australia and New Zealand, EMEA and the Americas generated 90 per cent of corporate TTV for the year (approximately 30 per cent in each region), with the company reporting a growing market share and increased volume of new business in both EMEA and the Americas.
According to the company, EMEA and the Americas will likely overtake Australia and New Zealand as the company’s largest corporate regions in the near term.
Five years ago, Europe and Americas generated 20 and 10 per cent of group profit respectively. The company said that while it maintains very high market share in Australia, its corporate business is "now becoming more heavily leveraged towards the Americas and EMEA" where it has "very strong future growth prospects given their comparative sizes and our small-but-growing market share".
Despite ongoing supply constraints and macro-economic uncertainty, Flight Centre Travel Group CEO, Graham Turner, remains upbeat about future growth, saying such factors “do not seem to be slowing recovery at this stage”.
The company on Thursday also announced the appointment of Kirsty Rankin as non-executive director. Rankin was previously the CEO of loyalty and engagement company Pinpoint, and SVP of product development, data and services at Mastercard.