Flight Centre slashes staff

FLIGHT Centre employees were informed of wide-ranging job cuts last week, with up to 1,500 redundancies as part of the company’s previously announced cost-saving plans (TD 06 Apr).

It’s understood the cuts focus on less experienced consultants, with most of the company’s remaining stores to be left with just a manager and a 2IC.

Flight Centre spokesman Haydn Long told TD the move was part of processes initiated in Mar, with the travel and tourism industries hit harder than any other sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our hearts go out to those people who are affected and we are working to preserve as many roles as we can,” he said.

Long said Flight Centre appreciated government support which has been made available in Australia to date, largely through the Job Keeper program.

“However the ongoing challenge is that it does not offset the almost total loss of revenue brought about by the never-before-seen border and travel restrictions that governments have applied,” he added.

Long also noted JobKeeper was set to expire in Sep, “well ahead of any significant rebound in travel and tourism”.

“We are starting to see an increase in domestic bookings, particularly since domestic travel restrictions were relaxed, but half of the bookings that our leisure sales people typically make are for international travel and there is no definitive timeframe for its return or even for the opening of international travel bubbles so this will be a significant contributing factor for staff remaining on stand-down or being made redundant,” he said.