Flight Centre Travel Group has downgraded its expected earnings for the current financial year due to the “short-term” impact of the Middle East conflict.
The Australia-based company, which owns TMC brands FCM and Corporate Traveller, said that it was now expecting to make an underlying pre-tax profit of between AU$275 million (€170 million) and AU$295 million (€180 million) for the year to 30 June 2026.
This is down by around 14.5 per cent from Flight Centre’s previous guidance of a pre-tax profit of between AU$310 million (€190 million) and AU$345 million (€210 million) for the financial year.
Flight Centre said that this downgrade “reflects temporary, conflict-driven headwinds, not deterioration in the underlying business”.
The company added that its leisure business had seen the biggest impact from the Iran war with earnings down by around AU$50 million (€30 million) year-on-year in the April to June quarter, while its global corporate business had been “less affected” and was “on track on deliver strong profit” for the 2026 financial year.
Before the Middle East conflict began in late February, the company said its TMC bands had been “outperforming” the overall corporate travel market.
“The corporate business’s strong profit growth over the year is now likely to be offset by lower-than-expected leisure profit and increased global HQ division losses,” added Flight Centre in its update.
Flight Centre’s managing director Graham Turner hailed the “bright outlook” for its corporate travel businesses, including a “stronger US presence” through its new Blockskye partnership, which would help it to “compete for some of the world’s largest accounts”.
“Looking ahead, we have strong foundations and growth prospects in both the leisure and corporate sectors,” said Turner.
Flight Centre added that its TMCs had now started a “broad rollout” of its “AI-powered” platforms — FCM’s Sam and Corporate Traveller’s Melon.