Skift Take

For Flight Centre, key risks to continued growth include the pace of business travel recovery and the execution of productivity initiatives. If airfares drop in price, it will be crucial to shift to a higher-margin product mix.

Sean O’Neill

Flight Centre Travel Group reported financial results Wednesday, with executives expressing optimism about future growth despite some headwinds.

Why it matters: As a major agency group, Flight Centre’s performance and outlook provide insights into the broader travel market recovery in its key markets of Asia Pacific and Europe.

What they’re saying: “The result pointed to a company that has emerged from the pandemic a stronger yet leaner business,” said John O’Shea, senior research analyst at Ord Minnett, in a flash report.

By the numbers:

The Brisbane-based agency group reported results for the year through the end of June.

• It processed a record $16 billion ($23.7 billion Australian) in travel bookings, up 8% year-over-year.

• It generated an underlying profit after tax that was twice as much as last year, about $155 million ($229 million Australian dollars).

• The group’s global corporate travel business delivered a 44% rise in its underlying profit before tax to $143 million ($211 million Australian), with its Corporate Traveller brand contributing a record profit.

• Flight Centre’s leisure travel agencies saw profit more than double to about $127 million ($188 million Australian). Cost discipline remains a focus, with the operating cost base 15% below the 2019 level.

Key takeaways

• A deflation in airfares after a post-pandemic spike is seen as a positive, potentially stimulating volume growth.

• Flight Centre is investing heavily in technology and AI to improve productivity and customer experience.

• Executives said they successfully navigated the adoption of NDC, or the new distribution capability, agreements with Qantas and Singapore Airlines. These airlines believe they’ll sell more using a more modern form of data exchange, NDC, instead of decades-old methods.

• “Our priority throughout that period was to make sure our customers had access to content and got the best pricing, so we did need some efficiency gains in Northern U.S.A. corporate during the last 6 months,” said Chris Galanty, CEO of Corporate Travel at Flight Centre. “The good news is, by the end of the fiscal year, we rectified most of that situation.”

Outlook

• Management expects 4-5% market growth in the next year, which would be in line with historical trends. Initial bookings pointed to ongoing resilience in travel spending.