In just under 30 minutes, Flight Centre’s new documentary Grounded took viewers on a journey that in real-time lasted three, extremely emotional years through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Airing on Nine last night, the program featured interviews with Flight Centre Travel Group senior executives including Co-Founder and CEO Graham “Skroo” Turner, Global CFO Adam Campbell, Managing Director Australia James Kavanagh, and Global CEO Leisure Melanie Waters-Ryan, among many others.
Perhaps front-line travel advisors should also have been interviewed. But when you’ve been forced to lay off some 15,000 staff around the world, where or with whom do you even begin that mammoth task? Maybe that could be left for ‘Grounded: The Series’ (if our hearts and heads could take that rollercoaster ride).
Plus, many of the powers that be within the organisation did make emotional tributes to what they called FCTG’s greatest assets: its people.
Airing just after 10.30 pm, the documentary begins at the beginning: with recollections about the start of Covid-19 – including dismissiveness towards what would become by far the most impactful event in the company’s history.
“We weren’t too worried about it,” said Turner when talking about the earliest rumblings of the virus. That tune would soon change – and in unimaginable ways.
Going to war
By the week of 16 March, Flight Centre’s bosses had established a “war room” on the 15th floor of FCTG’s Brisbane headquarters from which they would navigate the early, crucial months of the pandemic.
Within the war room, 6-7am starts were the norm, while Waters-Ryan said she didn’t go home for more than three weeks.
Throughout the documentary, there was a lot of talk about the group’s finances, as there had to be.
Campbell in particular went into how FLT shares dropped from around $45 in December 2019 to “just under $10” by mid-March at which point it put a trading halt on share prices.
“We knew we had to act very quickly or we wouldn’t survive,” Turner said.
To do this, FCTG entered talks with a US private equity firm, issued more shares to raise money, worked with its banks, and undertook a wall crossing, which involves having completely open and transparent discussions with institutional investors about the state of the company and its future.
“Haunting” phone calls to staff
Most significantly, it also had to reduce costs.
Campbell said “during a horrible period of time” that “to be able to survive as a company, we had to let go [of] 15,000 people globally, and we had to do that in a matter of weeks”.
Involving the “toughest decisions of my career”, an almost teary Kavanagh said, “I think at that point then, it was no longer about numbers … it was actually about changing the lives of thousands of people, so that was the hardest part”.
Flight Centre Global Treasurer Richard Humphries spoke of 15 to 20 people making “haunting” calls to teams.
“People knew that what they were about to say was going to impact people’s lives – and it was really tough. I had to go for a walk around Southbank … it was tough,” he remarked.
Former National Team Leader Andrew Malon, who lost his job with the company “he loves” just before the birth of his child said, “I understand how it works. I understand why we were stood down and it’s absolutely the right decision”.
Reflecting the camaraderie within the organisation, there were also stories of “financially secure” people who put their hands up to be laid off, Campbell said.
Plotting its comeback
CEO Corporate Brands Chris Galanty said that even during the cost-cutting and difficult times, the group was still talking about growth.
“How do we end up winning at the end of this? That was at the core of all of our planning; it was not just surviving, but coming back and winning, and I think that shows the resilience of the team and company as a whole,” he added.
Eventually, FCTG went from a business on its knees to one which could look forward with optimism as it celebrated 40 years of operations in 2022.
“In the last two years, we’ve done all the transformation we probably would have taken five years to do. And we started that in 2020 before the pandemic, but we’ve just brought that forward,” said Campbell.
“The signs are great. The market is coming back. The industry is coming back.”
Flight Centre Americas managing director Charlene Leiss added, “we’ve created a company that’s really more diversified, and really more rich. And we’ve also looked at sustainability and some of those other programs that are so key to the future.”
Grounded was produced by In Three Production and former head of creative and content at FCTG, Luke Wheatley.
Who were Flight Centre’s customers last year and which destinations were the most popular in 2022?
