Flight Centre brings back bricks and mortar stores as travel demand rebounds from Covid pandemic

The travel agency will re-open 35 of its national stores, including three in Brisbane, after the Covid pandemic forced their closure more than two years ago.

Flight Centre has 179 travel consultant vacancies at present. Picture: AAP/Julian Smith.

High airfares and the low Australian dollar are not dampening demand for leisure travel, prompting Flight Centre to re-open 35 of its national retail stores, including three in Brisbane, after the Covid pandemic forced their closure more than two years ago.

Once the 35 stores are brought out of hibernation over the next few months, Flight Centre said it would have 338 stores fully operational throughout Australia — well down on the 740 stores it had open in Australia pre-Covid.

Soon after the pandemic commenced in April, 2020, Flight Centre announced it would shut 40 per cent of its Australian stores — or around 428 retail outlets — across its red and white Flight Centre moniker as well as its various other brands. At the time Flight Centre founder and managing director Graham Turner told The Australian that decision was about “business survival.”

But on Monday, Flight Centre made the long awaited announcement that it would re-open 35 stores and that the long wait, particularly for its regional customers to book travel face-to-face with their local travel consultants, was over.

“While we continue to enhance our online booking experience for customers, we know how vital it is to have real people in real buildings providing expert customer service with a human touch. For many people, that’s their number one reason for coming back to us,” Flight Centre Australia general manager Brent Novak said in a statement.

But while the travel agency seeks to reopen the stores it admits it, like other industry groups such as hospitality, is having difficulty recruiting sufficient staff to run the retail stores.

Flight Centre has 179 travel consultant vacancies and 25 store team leader vacancies at present, having already recruited 1039 travel consultants and team leaders in the past year.

Mr Novak said a nationwide recruitment drive was underway to fill remaining vacancies in the re-opening stores.

In Brisbane, Flight Centre re-opened stores in the suburbs of Cleveland and Bulimba on October 31, while a third store at Greenslopes will reopen on November 14.

Flight Centre South East Queensland area leader Rindala Jensen said there was a push towards people booking travel through travel consultants due to the “horror stories of travellers left stranded either during their journey or not even being allowed to leave.”

Mr Turner led a spirited and outspoken attack on government policies throughout the pandemic.

He said the state premiers and former prime minister Scott Morrison should shoulder some of the blame and apologise to the nation for their “panicked response” to the pandemic.

“History will show or has already shown that shutting borders and dictating widespread lockdowns not only were ineffective in stopping Covid-19’s spread but caused enormous societal and collateral damage,” Mr Turner said recently.

“There was little science and poor interpretation of the data in governments’ actions. Generally we saw politicians and public health officials make rash decisions and decrees with devastating outcomes.”

Flight Centre will hold its AGM in Brisbane on November 14.