Flight Centre’s corporate travel growth ‘driven’ by account wins

Flight Centre Travel Group has seen “more modest growth” for its corporate travel division in recent months after setting a new record for total transaction value (TTV) during its previous financial year.

The Australia-based company’s corporate business, which owns TMC brands such as FCM and Corporate Traveller, has become Flight Centre’s largest division based on TTV with 51 per cent of total sales in the year to 30 June.

In an update at Flight Centre’s annual general meeting last week, CEO Graham Turner said its corporate business had “delivered phenomenal growth through its ongoing Grow to Win strategy”, which focuses on retaining clients and securing new customers to increase market share.

“Grow to Win supercharged the business’s recovery to about 135 per year of its pre-Covid size by the end of full-year 2024 [up to 30 June], without major acquisitions and well ahead of the overall industry’s rebound, which was estimated to be circa 80 per cent of pre-Covid activity at year-end,” added Turner.

“We saw further volume growth during the first quarter – albeit more modest – on top of last year’s record numbers and in a flat market globally.”

Turner said that Flight Centre’s corporate transaction volumes were up by 3 per cent year-on-year in the quarter from July to September.

“This volume growth was achieved with a leaner workforce – pointing to productivity gains – and was effectively driven by account wins,” he added.

“FCM won contracted accounts with estimated annual spends of A$350million (€315 million) during the four months to October 31 – above the same period last year and with a solid pipeline of future targets.

“Corporate Traveller, which we believe is the leading global, SME-only travel management company, also continues to secure a large volume of wins.”

FCM is now Flight Centre’s largest brand as measured by TTV, with 31 per cent of the company’s total sales – up from a share of just 20 per cent in 2019.

This growth has been driven by “new business wins and the onboarding of key multi-national customers”, with manufacturing, technology, government, finance and banking, and education ranking as its top corporate sectors.

Melissa Elf, global chief operating officer of Flight Centre Corporate, added: “As the alternative in business travel, FCM prides itself on being the most adaptable, responsive and innovative travel management company in the market – we have made huge strides over the last two decades to set ourselves apart in the industry.

“What we’ve seen in recent times is that corporate travel is anything but discretionary, it’s very much seen as a necessity for businesses to survive and thrive, while also being a key facet to winning new business, retaining staff and growing.”