Flight Centre reported a "strong recovery" in corporate travel for the first half of its 2023 fiscal year, with corporate travel revenue back to 88 percent of pre-Covid-19 levels and transactions 90 percent recovered.
During the July-through-December period, the group's corporate business, which includes FCM and the SME-focused Corporate Traveler, reported A$5 billion (US$3.4 billion) in total transaction value, which it said was a record for the period and 3 percent over pre-Covid levels. Total transaction value for each region set records as well except for the United States, where the metric was just below fiscal-year 2020 levels, according to Flight Centre. The segment reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of A$80 million, compared with a loss of A$31 million in the first half of the 2022 fiscal year.
The corporate travel management companies reported A$1.25 billion in total transaction value attributed to new account wins during the six months, split 57 percent for FCM and 43 percent for Corporate Traveler. Flight Centre noted the FCM wins largely were companies moving from competing TMCs, while the new Corporate Traveler business was a mix of wins from competitors and previously unmanaged accounts.
Since January, corporate travel activity has been "escalating," particularly in China and in the U.S., where monthly total transaction value has reached record levels, according to Flight Centre. The group has "hyper-invested" in the North America region, including a new sales hub in New York for Corporate Traveler that will open in the coming months.
Flight Centre CEO Graham Turner said recovery will continue throughout the second half of the fiscal year.
"While we continue to monitor market condition, we are not currently seeing evidence that the recovery is slowing with the leisure business currently trading at post-Covid highs and corporate travel activity escalating after the traditional holiday period," he said in a statement. "This underlines both the significant pent-up demand that still exists for travel in this early recovery phase and the sector’s proven resilience."
FCM Names N. America M&E Leaders
FCM's Meetings and Events division has promoted Monica Boundy to director of event operations and hired Hayley Ketchum as director of sales and account management, FCM announced Wednesday.
Ketchum joins FCM M&E from EMC Meetings & Events, where she was events manager, and she also has worked in catering and convention sales with multiple hotels. Boundy has been with FCM since 2016 and has been event director since 2019, working with many of the TMC's large accounts.