Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) is an Australian travel agency. It was founded in 1982, and is headquartered in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia. FCTG operates under multiple names in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, India, China mainland, Hong Kong (China), Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Mexico, and licenses its name in a further 80 countries. In the United States, the company operates under the Liberty Travel and Travel Associates retail brands and GOGO Worldwide Vacations as a wholesale brand. It also operates StudentUniverse, FCM Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveler, ciEvents, Campus Travel, Stage & Screen, and Healthwise.

History

The company was co-founded by Graham Turner and Geoff Harris in 1982 and began with a store in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. 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.André Sammartino (2007), 'Retail', in Dick, H. & Merrett, D. (eds.), ''The Internationalisation Strategies of Small-Country Firms: The Australian Experience of Globalisation'', Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK, pp.175–194. In December 2015, the company acquired StudentUniverse, the world's largest student and youth travel agency, 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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which saw an 80% decline in the company's share price (or about 85% from the August 2018 peak), 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 The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

under emergency COVID-19 schemes. In January 2023, Flight Centre purchased Scott Dunn.

Controversy

In 2016, Flight Centre UK was featured on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's ''Dispatches'' in an episode called 'The Truth About Cheap Flights'. ''Dispatches'' found alleged examples of undisclosed flight mark-ups, discriminatory pricing against elderly customers, not offering refunds for refundable flights, and seat-blocking. In 2017, Flight Centre was criticised for advertising that it would price match competitors and then insisting on charging a $49 fee when customers attempted to claim a price match. In 2018, Flight Centre was criticised for

price gouging Price gouging is the practice of increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair by some. This commonly applies to price increases of basic necessities after natural disaste ...

after former staff reported that the company trained employees to deliberately overcharge customers to generate profit for the company. It was also reported that the base salary of travel consultants was below minimum wage, and staff relied on generating profit through practices such as these in order to earn commissions. The company was the subject of an investigation by '' The 7.30 Report''. In response to the investigation, more than 200 staff contacted the ABC to report widespread bullying, harassment, drug use and a

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

-like atmosphere at Flight Centre. Also in 2018, Stuff.co.nz published copies of posters in Flight Centre offices which reminded female staff selected for the annual "global" staff party to pack

condoms A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condoms, also called male condoms, and internal (female) ...

and painkillers. During the

, Flight Centre was criticised for withholding substantial amounts from refunds to customer when suppliers failed to provide travel services, claiming "cancellation fees". Flight Centre later changed course to avoid

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

action following warnings from the

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Tra ...

and consumers that the practice was illegal. Despite this, customers waited months to receive refunds. The company faced further controversy when it was reported that customers who booked directly, rather than through Flight Centre, received refunds more quickly and without deductions, and that one in three customers still had not received refunds six months later. In December 2020, Flight Centre faced court for allegedly underpaying staff.

References

External links

* {{S&P/ASX 200 Travel agencies Travel and holiday companies of Australia Companies based in Brisbane Australian companies established in 1982 Retail companies established in 1982 COVID-19 pandemic in Australia Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Transport companies established in 1982 Travel ticket search engines