Travel hit triggers recovery demand

FLIGHT Centre boss Graham “Skroo” Turner has demanded governments reveal their strategies to recover from COVID-19 as his global travel business records a $475m loss.

The Queensland travel giant released its preliminary results for the year on Thursday, revealing it has at least 22 months of liquidity.

It expects to deliver a COVID-19-driven loss of between $475m and $525m compared to a $343m profit a year ago. The industry giant noted more than $500m in travel refunds had been issued in Australia since the pandemic began.

Mr Turner, whose personal fortune has been smashed by Flight Centre’s tumbling share price, said the pandemic had crippled his industry.

“COVID-19 and, specifically, the government responses to it have clearly had devastating impacts on businesses worldwide and on the airline, travel, tourism and hospitality industries in particular,” he said. “This has severely impacted us and our people, and some very tough decisions have been made over the past four or five months.”

Mr Turner (pictured) previously said up to 14,000 Flight Centre staff could remain stood down for months if travel demand did not return. About 70 per cent of the workforce have been stood down or their roles made redundant. He said state and federal governments needed to outline a recovery plan.

“It is critical that businesses across all sectors know these objectives and data lines for COVID-19 control and the lifting of restrictions – whether the end goal is community immunity, suppression, eradication or learning to live with this virus,” he said. “Learning to live with the virus involves protecting the vulnerable, while ramping up testing, contact tracing and ultimately isolation so we don‘t overwhelm intensive care units.

“Adopting this approach, while continuing to take sensible health precautions, flattening the curve and getting society and business back to a reasonable level of normality, must be priorities to reduce the already dire economic outcomes being experienced.”

Mr Turner said Flight Centre revenue had begun to increase, particularly in Europe.

Flight Centre shares closed 5.05 per cent higher at $12.28 on Thursday.