Flight Centre has dished out more than AUD600million in refunds

Sunday, 01 Sep, 2020 0

Flight Centre says it has refunded more than $600million to Australian customers impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Queensland-based travel giant has been hit hard by the pandemic, posting a full year statutory loss of $849million.

It has shrunk its active workforce by about 70%, from 20,000 to just 6,000.

It was an ‘unprecedented loss,’ said CEO Graham Turner.

Last year it posted a $343.5million profit.

"We’re an organisation that’s been built to sell travel, not to process refunds,’ Turner said.

The company was slammed by customers for imposing cancellation charges of hundreds of dollars in some cases before refunds were processed, sparking action from the consumer watchdog several weeks ago.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission threatened legal action before Flight Centre caved and said it would waive the hefty fees.

The ACCC said it had received more than 6,000 complaints.

Turner said there are now 1,500 employees working on processing refunds at the moment

Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Pacific editor

TravelMole Editorial Team

Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.

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