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Flight Centre buys Dublin TMC
Flight Centre Travel Group has bought Dublin-based travel management business Travelplan Corporate for an undisclosed sum from the Abbey Travel Group.
Since 2005, Travelplan Corporate has operated as a licensed partner of FLT’s global corporate travel division, FCm Travel Solutions.
Following the purchase, it will continue to trade as FCm Ireland and MD Valerie Metcalfe and the 50 staff will be kept on.
The move represents Flight Centre’s first international expansion since establishing FCm Travel Solutions in Dubai in 2007, and its first acquisition in Europe outside of the UK.
Since 2009, Flight Centre has opened 33 new retail and corporate travel offices in the UK, with a current total of 230.
Meanwhile, staff numbers have risen 29% to total 1,114 and turnover has grown 61% to reach £781.5m.
Steve Norris, Flight Centre UK’s corporate business leader, said: "The acquisition of Travelplan opens up opportunities for further organic growth and new business development. The team at FCm Ireland manages a growing portfolio of our multinational customers and works closely with FCm colleagues in Europe and across the network to service these customers."
Abbey Travel’s retail business is excluded from the deal.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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