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Flight Centre defies the doomsayers – again
Flight Centre has upgraded its profit expectations for the second time in three months.
The high street travel retailer says it may achieve better than 17% growth in pre-tax profits this year
Managing director Graham Turner said strong growth in its leisure travel business in Australia and the UK had helped drive the result.
"Australia and the UK, Flight Centre’s major profit drivers, easily surpassed their previous profit records," Turner said in a statement.
The company also recorded profit growth in the US, where it owns the largest corporate travel business in the country and is continuing to expand.
Chief operating officer Melanie Waters-Ryan told AAP there has never been any question about the value of physical stores to her company.
"For years we have been having the conversation: ‘Isn’t the internet your death knell?’, and for years we have been going ‘No’," she said.
"We see our physical footprint as an asset, not just a cost base.
"Physical stores and talking to a real person are an important part of quality of service," Waters-Ryan said, even if customers first make contact via the website.
Flight Centre, which operates in 10 countries, generates about five per cent of its sales online.
Ian Jarrett
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