Flight Centre is hoping cheap international flights will boost the company’s profits after seeing a slight dip in the first half the financial year.
This week, the agency announced its underlying profit before tax fell 5.9 percent in the six months to December 2014 from $146.3 million to $137.6 million.
Actual profit before tax also fell nine percent from $155 million to $141 million.
The agency group will focus on lightening consultants roles this year so that they can focus on selling.
This decrease in profits came despite TTV increasing 8.8 percent to $8.138 billion.
Flight Centre’s MD Graham Turner attributed the decline to a downturn in consumer confidence, which expects to shift in the coming months.
“We anticipate recovery as the year progresses and as travellers start to take advantage of the cheap international flights we are seeing in this golden era for travel.”
Graham Turner, Flight Centre MD
While Mr Turner stressed the outlook for Australia is still unclear, he expects there’ll be a chance to accelerate growth during the upcoming peak booking period.
“The challenge is to improve conversion, at a time when consumers are typically cautious, and grow TTV, at a time when international fares are very low.”
He said over the next 12 months the group will concentrate on making its leisure business as successful as its corporate business, which recorded a 15 percent rise in earnings before tax and interest (EBIT) in Australia to $130 million during the first half.
This will be achieved by focusing on narrowing the consultant’s role so that she/he can focus on selling more; finetune product strategies to assist consultants in selling; and develop websites that support the bricks and mortar businesses.
Outside of Australia, the group’s second largest profit generator was the UK, with corporate businesses in particular performing strongly.
Flight Centre UK’s first half EBIT increased from $6.9 million at December 2009 to $19.8 million at December 2014.
The UK was followed by the US, which was the second largest operation outside of Aus generating over $1 billion in TTV during the six months to 31 December 2014.
