Flight Centre

Flight Centre Travel Group
Public (ASX: FLT)
Industry Travel
Founded 1982; 34 years ago
Headquarters Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Area served
 Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and China
Key people
 Graham 'Skroo' Turner (Managing Director) [1]
Revenue Increase A$2.36 billion (2015)
Profit Increase A$257.0 million (2015)
Number of employees
 approx 18,500 (2015)[2]
Website flightcentre.com

Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) is an Australian-based international travel company and the largest retail travel outlet in Australia. Its global operations include stores in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Ireland, Singapore, the UAE and South Africa. The company is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:FLT) with an annual total turnover of $17 billion as at June 2015. It has more than 2,500 stores in the 12 equity countries with over 18,500 staff globally. FCTG operates many specialist brands, including FCM Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveller, Campus Travel, CiEvents, Stage & Screen Travel Services, Student Flights, Escape Travel, Cruiseabout, Quickbeds, Liberty Travel, GoGo Worldwide Vacations & Worldwide Traveler. It has licensee arrangements in a further 80 countries under its FCM corporate brand.[3]

History

A couple walk into a Flight Centre store in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Flight Centre store in North America
Flight Centre, North End Road, Fulham, London

Co-founded by Graham Turner and Geoff Harris in 1981,[4] the first Flight Centre Australia store opening in Sydney in 1982 with assistance from Bill James. Bill now runs Flight Centre Foundation and sits on the board for the Kokoda Track Foundation [5][6] Turner and James had previously run a successful budget bus trip company in Europe called Topdeck.

By 1990, Flight Centre had opened stores in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Expansion slowed with the onset of the Gulf War, which closed several overseas offices. However, it picked up again with a move to South Africa in 1994 and Canada in early 1995, and Flight Centre UK also opened in 1995.[7] United States operations recommenced in late 1999, with the company expanding its American operations with the purchase of Liberty Travel in 2008, Bannockburn Travel Management and Garber Travel.[8]

In late 2015, FCTG began a more aggressive push to expand its online presence. This included the purchase of US-based StudentUniverse.com and Brisbane-based BYOjet.com, as well as beginning work on a new in-house brand called Aunt Betty.[9] Until that point the company had largely remained based through physical retail outlets.

References

  1. ↑ "Board Profiles". Flight Centre Limited. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  2. ↑ "Annual Report 2011" (pdf). Flight Centre Limited. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  3. ↑ http://www.fctgl.com/sites/fctgl.com/files/150918%20FY15%20FLT%20Annual%20Report.pdf
  4. ↑ Pip Coates, 'To Have And To Hold: Geoff Harris. Worth: $975 million. Rank: 40', The Australian Financial Review Magazine, July 2014, p. 22
  5. ↑ http://www.kokodatrackfoundation.org/board-of-directors.aspx
  6. ↑ "Flight Centre". Flight Centre Limited. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ "Liberty Travel". Flight Centre Limited. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "Media Releases". Retrieved 2016-08-01.

External links

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