Flight Centre to introduce targeted staff retention program

Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has unveiled a retention program targeted at the company’s global sales force and support staff.

Under the new Global Recovery Rights (GRR) program, staff globally (excluding board members and senior executives) will be granted share rights if they continue their careers at FCTG during what is expected to be a recovery phase through to the end of 2021.

Most participants will receive a one-off GRR grant of 250 share rights, which will vest in February 2023, when the company will release its December 2022 half-yearly results.

GRR participants who meet the program’s continuous employment condition will then be able to exercise their rights and receive an equivalent number of ordinary FCTG shares.

In a small number of locations where FCTG is not able to offer its employee share plans, the company will pay a cash benefit (rather than shares) at the end of the GRR vesting period to its people who meet the same continuous employment condition.

In total, about 7,500 FCTG people are expected to receive about 1.9 million shares under the program at an expected non-cash cost of approximately $30 million based on today’s share price.

FCTG managing director Graham “Skroo” Turner (pictured above) said the GRR program was a specific, one-off response to COVID-19 and was aligned with the company’s key strategic objectives of investing in and retaining people who would be integral to its recovery and shareholder value creation; and preserving cash, while governments continued to impose heavy travel restrictions that were severely impacting demand for travel.

“This is a material investment in the people who are integral to both our recovery and our future success,” he said.

“The GRR program underlines our people’s importance and recognises their efforts and their loyalty since the pandemic began and heavy travel restrictions were imposed, adversely impacting their earning potential, while they continued to work incredibly hard to help customers secure refunds or rearrange their travel plans.

“It is first and foremost a retention program that encourages our people to continue their careers with us during what we believe will be an important 18-month period as vaccination programs progress, trading conditions start to normalise and the recovery starts to gain momentum.

“In addition to being aligned with our strategic objectives, this new program also gives our people a stronger degree of ownership of our company and thereby strengthens the ties between their interests and those of our other shareholders in the mid to long-term.”

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