The Flight Centre Travel Group has announced a further change to its Australian leisure shop network as part of the company’s ongoing network management plan to reduce the overlap between shops in higher density areas, particularly in the Flight Centre brand, and to prepare for the return of travel.

About 90 Flight Centre brand shops will close, leaving the company with a strong nationwide network of 332 shops in its flagship leisure brand, along with a variety of other connected channels that customers can use to transact and interact with the brand and its people.

Customers who may be impacted by a shop closure will be contacted directly to introduce them to a nearby store. All bookings, pending refunds and credits will remain easily accessible by customers and our teams.

The closures have also been prompted by the continued domestic and international border closures, which have effectively grounded leisure travel in Australia for the past six months and led to billions of dollars in future travel bookings being cancelled.

FCTG’s Australian managing director, James Kavanagh, said the retained Flight Centre shops had been carefully selected to deliver maximum convenience and effective coverage for customers in the future, with about 95% living within five kilometres of a retained shop.

Flight Centre and all of the travel service providers (e.g. hotels, etc.) we work with continue to process large volumes of refunds for customers. Unfortunately, in many cases, there are delays in getting the money back to customers for various reasons.

Sometimes the travel service provider may provide a different explanation to customers about where funds are held, and we know this is causing frustration for our customers.

In some cases, funds are paid immediately by us to travel service providers, and in other cases, funds are held until the trip has been taken or ‘availed’. This will depend on when we are contractually required to make payment to the travel service provider.

Due to our contractual obligations, we can only refund customers in accordance with the travel service provider’s cancellation terms and conditions (which for COVID-19 cancellations, may be waived closer to the date of departure), or alternatively, only if the travel service provider has expressly authorised us to process the customer’s refund.

Unfortunately this doesn't always happen in a timely manner. In some cases, a travel service provider’s COVID-19 policy provides for a travel credit only. A travel credit may also be the only available option where a booking is cancelled and attracts cancellation fees (e.g. instant purchase products, and non-refundable products).

Nevertheless, please be reassured that we advocate for the best outcome for our customers, including when cancellation fees are applied by a travel service provider, we work closely with them to seek waivers if we can.

Flight Centre Travel Group (FLT) today released it’s full FY20 results.

Although significant losses were recorded as a result of COVID-19, Australia’s leading travel business has made significant inroads into reducing its cost base to create a long-term liquidity runway to ensure sustainability.

The company will continue to work towards extending this runway in the near-term by increasing revenue through the sale of domestic holidays and experiences, including New Zealand as travel restrictions are lifted or relaxed; and by targeting further cost reductions in its leisure travel businesses.

Extending the runway will allow the company to continue to trade, bringing extraordinary travel offers to Australians as it has for around 40 years, and to prepare for the inevitable rebound that will come when restrictions are lifted and consumer confidence recovers.

Graham Turner, Flight Centre’s Global Managing Director confirmed that COVID 19 has created the most challenging trading environment that the company has experienced in almost 40 years in business.

“We were forced to make some very tough decisions as this crisis unfolded, but we were very fortunate to be able to draw on our strong balance sheet. We also moved quickly to develop a longer cash and liquidity runway and to lower costs in anticipation of a zero or very low revenue environment for an extended period of time.

“Revenue has, to date, exceeded our initial expectations and has been increasing – although the heightened border restrictions in Australia and New Zealand may slow growth this month,” Mr Turner said.

Please click here to view the full FY20 financial results. 

Flight Centre Travel Group’s Travel Money Oz business has announced that it will officially hibernate operations while international travel remains off-limits to Australians. The business will resume operations when border restrictions are lifted and Australians are again able to travel overseas.

The Travel Money Oz Currency Pass, Travel Money Transfers and MoneyGram products are all available online so that customers can continue to interact with products until the physical return of the business.

Travel Money Oz will retain a support team to ensure the needs of customers continue to be met via digital platforms and direct enquiry contact via the website and customer contact line.

On 2 May 2020 Travel Associates announced an amendment to our Change and Cancellation Policy for customers.

To support Australians during this very difficult time, Travel Associates and our parent company FCTG has made the decision to completely waive our usual Cancellation Fees for bookings where the travel provider (usually an airline, cruise line or tour operator) has cancelled its service - and you are unable to travel as a result.

The waiver, which is in addition to the other waivers and amendments that we have announced previously, follows ongoing discussions with clients and regulators, including the ACCC, and will apply retrospectively to bookings cancelled as a result of COVID-19 on or after 13 March 2020 for which a Travel Associates Cancellation Fee was charged. Please note this waiver applies to our fees – we cannot waive fees or conditions that airlines and other third party suppliers impose.

We also announced our offer of an additional Travel Associates credit voucher of up to $200 per person to customers who choose to keep their money on file with us. For all information on these updates, please read our FAQs.