Corporate travellers have returned to the skies as the lifting of travel restrictions across the globe has seen confidence return, particularly in the SME sector, with Flight Centre Business Travel’s (FCBT) personal service taking off between 1 February and 30 April 2022.
The SME specialist division of the Flight Centre Travel Group has seen international travel return in a strong way in the last three months, with overseas bookings now 40 per cent of total sales.
That’s a five per cent increase on the same dates prior to COVID in 2019 – albeit from a smaller volume.
The top three overseas destinations for business travellers were United States, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates.
“We have a unique business model in that all our customers deal directly with travel managers, so they get a truly personalised service every time – something that SMEs emerging from the pandemic really value,” said FCBT General Manager Cameron Harris.
“We’ve won a lot of business in recent times simply because corporate businesses understand that it’s now easier to have an expert take care of everything for you, freeing them up to do what they do best, running and growing their businesses.
“Things are returning to normalcy around the world but there are still requirements that differ from country to country, and we have an internal team working around the clock to ensure we deliver timely and accurate information to all our customers.
“The appetite for SMEs to return to business travel is clear to see and in the month of April we were back to almost three-quarters of our pre-COVID travel volume as corporates see the window of opportunity to get ahead, meet suppliers, and have face-to-face time with their colleagues,” said Harris.
“We proudly have more than 1,500 SME clients across Australia, have local booking offices across the country, and with our travel managers having on average seven years of experience between them, there’s never been a better time for SMEs to take advantage of our services.”
For more information visit www.flightcentrebusinesstravel.com.au
