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31 October, 2022

Flight Centre on the hunt for fresh talent as 35 stores come out of hibernation

Melbourne, Australia: April 12, 2018: Street view of a Flight Centre shop window. Flight Centre is Australia’s largest travel agency selling international flights, holidays and tours. A man walks past.

By Alexandra Coulton

Flight Centre will bring 35 of its stores across Australia out of hibernation over the next few months for the first time since 2020.

Once the 35 stores are brought out of hibernation, Flight Centre will be serving customers in 338 stores throughout Australia.

The reopenings kicked off in Brisbane on Monday with the Cleveland and Bulimba stores brought out of hibernation and the Greenslopes store expected to follow on 14 November.

SEQ area leader Rindala Jensen said Flight Centre was a community-anchored business with consultants likely to live and work within the community.

“We’ve had customers knocking on our doors or leaving notes for our consultants, all to say how excited they are to see us back,” Jensen said.

“Over the last 40 years, Flight Centre consultants have built strong relationships with customers. Many of those relationships began long before the pandemic struck, and both our people and clients are excited about reconnecting over travel!”

As part of its re-opening spree, a nationwide recruitment drive was also underway to fill remaining vacancies in the re-opening stores, according to Flight Centre Australia general manager Brent Novak.

“We’re still on the lookout for team leaders and travel consultants looking for a new challenge. It’s a very exciting time to be working in travel.”

Flight Centre Australia currently has 179 Travel Consultant vacancies and 25 store Team Leader vacancies having already recruited 1039 Travel Consultants and Team leaders in the last year.

“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,” Novak said.

“At a time when regional and suburban communities in Australia are witnessing services such as banking and telecommunications closing branches and becoming available only online, Flight Centre will continue to provide customers with the choice.

“Rather than sacrificing bricks-and-mortar for broader online and call centre services, we’re committed to enhancing all our customer channels because we recognise no two customers are the same in terms of how they like to book travel.”

Jensen said that in her recent experience people now value booking travel through a consultant more than ever.

“If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s the importance of having an expert in your corner. There are so many horror stories of travellers left stranded either during their journey or not even being able to leave.”

“Because people still have some trepidation about travelling again, having the ability to speak to a travel consultant, face to face in their local community will be priceless. We want to simplify travel in a constantly evolving and complex travel environment.”

She said customers returning to their local store to book their holidays can expect to see some instore improvements.

“We’ve streamlined our processes and systems to deliver our customers an amazing travel experience backed by the people and brand they know, love and can trust. The pandemic has also made our consultants greater experts than ever in navigating the complexities of travel right now.”

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