A strong year for FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller, the corporate brands of Flight Centre Travel Group, helped the group’s UK business achieve a record profit.
As the global group announced its 2024 full-year financial results, Steve Norris, EMEA Managing Director, Flight Centre Travel Group said its flagship corporate businesses played a “pivotal role” in the UK growth.
“Corporate travel continues to be seen as a non-discretionary spend for businesses and remains a crucial facet for companies that want to survive and thrive across the EMEA region,” he said.
“Our outstanding team has continued to drive new business wins for FCM Travel, while expanding our customer base in the UK nationally. Of these bigger nationwide wins, it’s important to note that some major customers have yet to be fully implemented, and we’ll see the benefits of this in FY25.”
Chris Galanty, Global Corporate CEO, Flight Centre Travel Group, said it has been a “robust year” for the group’s corporate pillar, with Corporate Traveller and FCM Travel delivering record Total Transaction Value (TTV) in a sector that has only recovered to around 80% of pre-Covid transaction volumes.
Corporate TTV reached a record AU$12.1 billion, as the business finished the year about 35% larger than the full year in 2019.
“This result has been driven by high customer retention rates and a large pipeline of new account wins, some of which have yet to be fully implemented, so we’ll see the benefits of these flow over the coming months once they begin trading,” he said.
“FCM Travel transaction volumes rose by 10% year on year as the business continues to win and service large multi-national and enterprise-level accounts, while Corporate Traveller delivered a record profit globally, alongside winning managed and unmanaged SME and start-up accounts.”
Flight Centre Travel Group delivered a AU$320 million underlying PBT for 2024 fiscal year, a 131% increase on the AU$139 million in 2023.
Group TTV reached a record AU$23.74 billion, slightly above the AU$23.7 billion FY19 result and a AU$1.8 billion year-on-year increase.
The global corporate business delivered a 44% underlying PBT increase to AU$211 million, with Corporate Traveller contributing a record profit.