Flight Centre jab push
FLIGHT Centre Travel Group’s Australian business sold a month’s worth of tickets to NZ on a single day following the announcement of the travel bubble, a clear sign of the pent-up demand for international travel.
FCTG Australia managing director James Kavanagh (pictured) said he was disappointed the opening of international borders had been pushed out from October to 2022.
“On the vaccine rollout, my initial expectation was that we would under-promise and over-deliver on the timeline,” he said. “Now, with the timeline pushed back, it’s disappointing and definitely, I feel we need to acc e l e r a t e this.”
Mr Kavanagh called on the government to “open up thinking” on the rollout to enable more green zones and travel bubbles to stem the suffering of an “ecosystem” of businesses affected by border closures.
“I think we need some different thinking around age brackets,” he said. “Open up the thinking and try and get more of the population through. We have the capability to distribute vaccinations en masse … we’re doing something like 17 million flu jabs a year.
“Certainly, there’s talk about there being a bit of a supply problem, too, and we acknowledge that.
“But with the supply we have, there’s efficient systems in place that we should be able to administer at a faster pace.”
On Friday, Commsec’s economic analysis of first numbers in the Australia-nz bubble predicted a “generally positive outlook” for travel and leisure stocks but said it would depend on vaccine rollout and virus containment.
About 119,900 overseas travel movements — 54,800 arrivals and 65,100 departures — were recorded in April, more than double that in March, reflecting the partial impact of the Australia-nz travel bubble, which started on April 18.
“The numbers are nowhere near the 3.5m movements in a more ‘normal’ April month such as 2019, but it’s a start,” Commsec chief economist Craig James said.
“The reopening of foreign borders is the pathway to greater ’normality’ — whatever that will be.
“But ‘normality’ is still some way away — the general assumption being that it will be another year at least before borders can start reopening in a more meaningful way.”
Earlier this month, the Asx-listed Flight Centre Travel Group flagged a higher than expected $500m loss for the full year and cut dividends in 2022.
The $3.3bn global business raised more than $1bn to survive the pandemic-driven travel shutdown, but is expecting to make a profit next year.
NZ accounts for about 10 to 13 per cent of Flight Centre Australia’s travel bookings.
At home, leisure and corporate travel bookings have been reasonably consistent, but there’s still fear around sudden border closures and quarantine requirements.