Corporate Travel Management wins $5bn British public service contract

Brisbane-based Corporate Travel Management has just won a major five-year contract to manage the travel needs of the British public service.

Corporate Travel Management CEO Jamie Pherous. Picture: Liam Kidston

Fresh from a successful $100m capital raising, Brisbane-based Corporate Travel Management has just won a major five-year contract to manage the travel needs of most of the British public service.

Corporate Travel Management will run the travel bookings for Britain’s central government departments, local authorities, universities, schools and the NHS Trust under a deal expiring in December, 2025.

The contract is rumoured to be worth more than $1bn a year for the next five years.

Corporate Travel Management last week announced the $175m purchase of Helloworld’s corporate and entertainment divisions, which includes lucrative federal and state government travel contracts. Divisions picked up include QBT, AOT Hotels, Show Group, Travel Edge and Atlas, which operates out of New Zealand.

Corporate Travel Management CEO Jamie Pherous said the purchase, which had been in the wings for about 12 months, allows it to expand into new sectors of travel management including entertainment, film, music and the arts, which were expected to benefit from the removal of Covid-19-related restrictions.

He said there was significant pent-up demand for entertainment and conference-related travel.

Helloworld CEO Andrew Burnes said that after jettisoning its commercial travel business the company would concentrate on leisure travel, which was rapidly improving, both domestically and internationally.

Mr Burnes said non-corporate total transaction volumes in November were $94.8m, up 50.5 per cent on October and 192 per cent on November, 2020.

He said funds from the sale would be used to pay down debt, boost cash reserves and fund growth in Helloworld’s leisure businesses.

Travel research house STR reports occupancies in Australia’s key hotel markets are rising, with Brisbane and Adelaide nearing 70 per cent on New Year’s Eve.

“Occupancy on the books is once again trending upward, and throughout the holidays levels are already sitting above 60 per cent in some key markets.

“Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney each show rising occupancy on the books after Christmas that eventually builds to high points on December 31,” STR said.

Qantas is also banking on a big boost in leisure travel, announcing last week it was ordering 134 Airbus aircraft for its domestic fleet, the biggest aircraft order in Australia’s aviation history.

Originally published as Corporate Travel Management wins $5bn British public service contract