FCM Sees 50% Corporate Travel Recovery by Year End
Flight Centre’s corporate arm projects profitability to return late in 2021 >>
by: Harvey Chipkin
FCM, the corporate travel division of Flight Centre Travel Group, said in a statement that it expects a significant rebound in its global corporate travel business by year-end as activity increases and as it starts to see stronger returns on the multi-million-dollar investments in it has made in its offerings during the pandemic. The business, which operates in more than 95 countries, believes sales will continue to increase globally and is targeting 50% of pre-COVID levels by the end of the year. With vaccination programs well underway in key markets, and gaining momentum globally, and as consumer confidence increases, the corporate business’s profitability remains on track to return late in 2021, as the company has previously forecast. At the end of April, Flight Centre Travel Group’s corporate business, of which FCM is the flagship multinational focused division, was trading at 29% of prior year levels globally, but had developed a strong organic growth profile, fueled by a combination of high customer retention rates and record new account wins during the pandemic. Recent wins have included large and high-profile accounts, such as Procter & Gamble and Atos. Marcus Eklund, FCM global managing director, said: “Based on early signs that vaccines are effective in preventing symptomatic infection, and with healthy vaccine rollout rates in key markets such as the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, we expect health risks to reduce. In the absence of disruptions such as new strains, this should lead to an easing of government-imposed restrictions on domestic and international travel, and a partial rebound of the global business travel market by year end. Based on our experiences, travel immediately rises by 20-30 per cent when restrictions are relaxed. A healthier rebound will occur if international borders remain open.”
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