Flight Centre builds business in Europe

Flight Centre builds business in Europe
By Hannah Edensor


The Flight Centre Travel Group has amped up its corporate travel footprint over in the vast land of Continental Europe.

The company, who recently acquired corporate businesses in Germany, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden, today announced it had acquired a 25 per cent interest in Paris-based 3Mundi.

3Mundi is a travel and technology company with operations in France, Switzerland and Spain.

In addition to the 25 per cent investment, Flight Centre will also put additional agreements in place so they can potentially acquire 100 per cent of the business in the future.

The acquisition is expected to be all wrapped up by July 2017.

Flight Centre’s Managing Director Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner said the investment in 3Mundi would strengthen the company’s global corporate network and give Flight Centre a platform for further expansion in large and fast-growing markets.

“France and Switzerland are important corporate hubs for our existing customers and for new multi-national accounts that we are targeting globally,” Turner said.

“This investment will deliver immediate benefits by:

  • Strengthening our European presence, which now includes businesses in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and Switzerland; and
  • Delivering new technology, products and tools that can be adapted and rolled out in other geographies and brands within our global network.

“There is also opportunity to work with 3Mundi’s team to develop other new products and offerings in the future.”

3Mundi also operates a Barcelona-based business travel lab, which is in the process of creating artificial intelligence technology and products for the travel industry, no doubt a huge advantage for Flight Centre down the track.

3Mundi is expected to turnover around Euro$100 million (AU$147.9 million) in the 2017 financial year.

It comes after a number of big announcements for Flight Centre of late, including its plans to create a global destination marketing company in Southeast Asia, in between constantly shaking off OTAs and their place in the market.

 

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