Profit spike for Flight Centre

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25/02/2010 3:48:13 PM

Profit spike for Flight Centre

Flight Centre has said airfares will continue to rise in the short to medium-term as the retailer nearly doubled its first half net profit after tax to $51.1 million.

The company saw yields for international airfares sold in Australia fall 17% compared to last year. Sales in the period reached $5.2 billion.

“Leisure results have been good, particularly in Australia, where cheap fares have stimulated demand and consumer confidence appears to have rebounded fastest,” managing director Graham Turner said. “Looking ahead, we see continued growth and improvement opportunities, particularly in corporate and wholesale travel and in niche leisure market areas.”

The result came as Turner promised to continue breaking down the “myth” that online travel agents have cheaper airfares than bricks and mortar agencies.

“To do this in Australia, we will continue to highlight our lowest airfare guarantee, which means Flight Centre consultants will beat genuine written quotes from other Australian-registered businesses, including online players, offers from airlines and competing travel agency groups,” he said.

Turner drew up a hit list of six key priorities for the coming months. They included improving the return on the company’s investment in India, Canada and the US; attracting and retaining leaders; further development of the company’s global land and air product buying and distribution system and procuring and retaining customers.

Turner said there was a “minimal economic recovery” in key international markets, including the US and UK.

25 February 2010

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