Flight Centre Travel Group chairman Gary Smith reported (07-Nov-2019) "overall leisure results in Australia were below our expectations, albeit in a fairly subdued trading environment" and during a time of "significant disruption". Mr Smith attributed "disruption" to the following major changes:
- Deployment of a new GDS, which temporarily impacted total transaction value growth, sales staff numbers, margins and instore productivity;
- Introduction of a new wage model for Flight Centre and Universal Traveller sales staff in Australia, leading to a AUD14 million (USD9.6 million) wage increase in FY2019;
- Brand consolidation of Escape travel and Cruiseabout brands;
- Ongoing review of the leisure network. [more - original PR]