Flight Centre Travel Group, an Australian travel company headquartered at Brisbane in Queensland says it achieved an AUD 106 million underlying profit before tax (PBT) for the half year to December 31, 2023.
In a statement filed at Australian Stock Exchange, where the company is listed, FCTG says that the total transaction value in the first six months of the fiscal year grew by 15 pc to AUD 11.3 billion, marking the second-best start to its year and just behind the pre-pandemic period of six months ending December 31, 2019.
The company’s filing adds that travel has outperformed other discretionary spendings by consumers. It says its profit before tax has risen 565 pc compared to the corresponding period of the previous year and has seen profits from the leisure travel division grow 950 pc compared to the same period of its FY2020.
The company adds that the total transaction value (TTV) of its corporate business rose 16.8 pc to a record AUD 5.9 billion, as the business again achieved new sales milestones and comfortably outpaced the broader corporate travel sector’s recovery.
Leisure TTV increased 18 pc to AUD 5.2 billion, with scale benefits being achieved across a diverse mass market, luxury, complementary and independent brand range.
“Asia has continued to outperform, with a significant 44 pc increase in revenue, fuelled by strong performance across Southeast Asia, India, and the re-opening of China. India has continued to perform strongly, with a significant increase in revenue, in both our core businesses – corporate travel and Meetings & Events,’’ says Sunny Sodhi, Managing Director, FCM Travel India.
‘‘This is driven by India’s strong economy, our strategic decisions to consolidate and focus on our core business offerings, investments in technology, and leveraging Global Business Solutions to increase automation, operational efficiencies, and productivity. With new account wins and strong customer retention rates of 98 pc, FCM Travel has become the preferred travel management company providing business travellers with a ‘Glocal’ travel experience,” adds Sodhi.
“Our corporate businesses have had a strong start to H1 of FY24 globally, contributing 52 pc of Flight Centre Travel Group’s total transaction value, with our proven organic growth model again delivering record overall sales. We have also achieved new milestones in the four geographic regions of Australia and New Zealand, the Americas, Europe, and Middle East and Africa and Asia,’’ says Chris Galanty, Global Corporate CEO, Flight Centre Travel Group.
“These record results, built on high customer retention rates and large volumes of new account wins, were achieved in a sector that has only recovered to circa 70 pc of pre-COVID transaction volume levels, pointing to our healthy market-share growth. At the end of January 2024, our corporate brands had secured new accounts with projected annual spends of circa AUD 1.3 billion, with FCM Travel typically winning customers from competitors, and corporate traveller securing a mix of unmanaged and smaller, managed accounts,’’ adds Galanty.
“We continue to make strides in the technology space with mass adoption of our Corporate Traveller Melon platform in the USA and Canada, with fast growth also being seen in the UK. FCM Platform has also seen successful growth with all existing customers anticipated to be migrated this year. We are also progressing our corporate AI Centre of Excellence and that has seen new features added to the suite of products already available that have improved the customer experience and increased our operational productivity,’’ says Galanty.
“We look forward to continuing this momentum into H2 of FY24, with more exciting advancements to come later in the year, and some major customers to be onboarded globally,” he says.