After twenty-five years as Flight Centre Travel Group’s in-house wholesale brand, the company has announced that Infinity Holidays is being retired in Australia as part of a product restructure.
In an announcement released late yesterday, Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) said that due to the impact of COVID-19 on the business, ‘A sustainable, lean business model is key to the company’s ability to effectively rebound and enable investment in critical growth areas.’
As such, and following leisure network changes that have already been made, ‘FCTG has elected to streamline and centralise its multiple product support areas’, thus retiring the Infinity Holidays brand.
FCTG says the new centralised division is a reimagined blended model of its existing Infinity Holidays and product support teams to create a one-stop Product Excellence Hub for its group’s consultants.
However, the group said that Flight Centre’s global procurement business; Global Product Network which is responsible for the global contracting of its leisure suppliers is not a part of this restructure.
Greg Parker, Flight Centre’s Executive General Manager of Australian Supply and Product said the company saw a clear need to right-size its product support business during the current subdued trading climate to deliver a more effective rebound.
“Due to the impact that COVID-19 has had on our business and on the industry overall, there’s been a clear need to reimagine our future operating models. If all we do is reduce our costs and bring back a smaller version of ourselves, we are clearly not positioning ourselves for long term sustainable growth.”
Greg Parker, Flight Centre’s Executive General Manager, Australian Supply and Product
“In the product space, we must make decisions now that will allow us to focus on delivering a stronger future business model for customers. Obviously this will be incredibly tough on our people, especially those directly impacted, however, we must ensure our business is positioned correctly for the future,” Mr Parker said.
While the confirmed number of staff affected is unknown, it’s estimated that Infinity Holidays employed over 200 people.
Following the announcement, a flood of tributes and goodwill flowed in on our Together In Travel Facebook page last night with some of the comments including:
“I’m so devastated. I owe a world of gratitude to the Infinity peeps who helped me to develop and grow over the past eight years of my career.”
“Viva la blue. What a crew and a shining time we had over the years. Thank you to a community that gave everything and then some.”
“Heart breaking news. Please remember the Infinity Staff members all over Australia. ONE of the BEST Teams in the world! Hire the staff – you will never regret it!”
The group says the changes will provide Flight Centre with a sustainable, leaner base for Product Support now and into the future, ultimately resulting in a better customer experience which is the company’s critical end-goal.