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Flight Centre hopes to save jobs as it shuts another 90 stores worldwide

Steven DeareAAP
Flight Centre to close even more stores amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Camera IconFlight Centre to close even more stores amid the coronavirus pandemic. Credit: Bloomberg, Ian Waldie/Bloomberg News

Flight Centre is closing 90 of its travel agencies across the world, having already cut about 4000 jobs this year due to the pandemic ravaging the travel industry.

Many of the closures will be in Australia, though chief executive Graham Turner said this did not necessarily mean more redundancies.

There are about 400 Flight Centre agencies left in Australia.

“A lot of these shops will be more heavily staffed than they were in the past so we’ll be building them back up with staff coming back on board as the business returns,” Mr Turner told the ABC.

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He said some workers would move to call centre and online roles.

Flight Centre operates in 23 countries and its workforce, which used to be about 20,000 people, has been slashed by about 70 per cent as workers were stood down or made redundant.

Coronavirus restrictions have decimated international travel and limited interstate movements.

In Australia, Flight Centre is using the Federal Government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy to retain staff. It expects a benefit of between $70 million to $80m this financial year. JobKeeper is due to expire in March.

Mr Turner is part of an industry group working with the Federal Government to help travel resume.

He said he hoped State and Territory border restrictions could be eased soon, and Australia and New Zealand could set up travel arrangements.

Management believes demand for overseas travel will not fully recover before the 2023 or 2024 financial years without a vaccine.

Flight Centre reported a full-year loss of $510m for the last financial year.

The company has been contacted for comment.

Its shares were higher by 2 per cent to $14.05 at 11.40am.

AAP

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