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FCM Travel Asia Sets the Pace with 44% Revenue Growth at Mid-Year Mark

• Posted on March, 21, 2024

Significantly above pre-pandemic levels, the company’s leisure business reported an astounding AUD$60 million in underlying PBT. This achievement represents a remarkable 30-fold rise over the same period in FY23 and doubles the underlying PBT from FY19. Corporate PBT increased significantly as well, at 53% to AUD$93 million. The Flight Centre Travel Group has reported strong mid-year financial results for the fiscal year 2024. Notably, FCM Asia has demonstrated a remarkable 44% rise in revenue. Discuss this topic in depth in today’s blog “FCM Travel Asia Sets the Pace with 44% Revenue Growth at Mid-Year Mark”. Furthermore, make sure to visit Tripbeam to grab the cheapest business class flights to India from USA .

Fiscal Year 2024 Mid-Year Results Overview

Flight Center Travel Group has released strong mid-year financial statistics for the fiscal year 2024. Notably, FCM Asia has demonstrated a 44% growth in sales, making it a standout performer.

According to the firm, the underlying profit before tax (PBT) for the six months that ended December 31, 2023, was AUD$106 million. Notably, the leisure industry accomplished an underlying PBT of AUD$60 million, exceeding pre-pandemic levels and indicating a noteworthy thirty-fold gain from the first half result of the previous fiscal year.

Furthermore, due to consistent organic growth, the underlying corporate PBT increased by 53% to AUD$93 million.

Notable financial highlights include a 15% rise in total transaction value (TTV) to AUD$11.3 billion, which places FCTG second only to the FY20 first half in terms of start-to-year performance. The company’s varied brand portfolio and strategic activities helped corporate TTV reach a record AUD$5.9 billion, while leisure TTV soared to AUD$5.2 billion.

Revenue Surge in Asia: Insights from FCM Managing Director

Bertrand Saillet, FCM Managing Director, Asia, attributed the region’s achievements to strategic decisions, technology investments, and the application of Global Business Solutions to boost operational effectiveness.

“Strong performance in Southeast Asia, India, and the reopening of China has driven Asia’s revenue growth, which is a notable 44% increase,” stated Saillet. “Our success has been attributed to our strategic decisions to invest in technology, focus on our core business offerings, and consolidate. Additionally, we have used Global Business Solutions to boost automation, productivity, and operational efficiency.”

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Corporate Business Performance Overview

Chris Galanty, Global Corporate CEO of Flight Centre Travel Group, commended the corporate enterprises for their strong global start, pointing out that they constituted 52% of the company’s total transaction value. Galanty highlighted record sales results across all geographic regions and underscored the requirement of strong client retention rates and considerable new account acquisitions in an industry that hasn’t fully recovered from pre-COVID transaction volumes.

“At the end of January 2024, our corporate brands had secured new accounts with estimated yearly spends of approximately $1.3 billion, with Corporate Traveller securing a mix of smaller, managed, and unmanaged accounts, and FCM Travel typically winning customers from competitors,” stated Galanty.

“We continue to make strides in the technology space with our Corporate Traveller Melon platform, which is being widely adopted in the USA and Canada and is growing quickly in the UK,” he said. This year, we project that all current clients will transition as the FCM Platform experiences growth.

Galanty continued her description of the company’s technological breakthroughs, citing the effective expansion of the FCM Platform and the pervasive usage of the Corporate Traveller Melon platform.

“We’re also advancing our corporate AI Center of Excellence, and as a result, new features have been added to the suite of products that are already available, improving our operational productivity and customer experience,” Galanty continued.

Galanty expressed optimism that, until the second half of FY24, it will be possible to keep up with anticipated innovations and global client onboarding programs. He underlined the company’s commitment to accurate and reliable strategies that put growth and effectiveness first.

India: A Promising Arena for Future Growth

As stated in FCM Travel Asia’s Mid-Year Results FY2024, “Asia has continued to outperform, with a significant 44% increase in revenue,” Bertrand Saillet, Managing Director, reiterated the favorable forecast for the Indian market.

“We are witnessing growth opportunities in India and Southeast Asia in FY2025, driven by strong performance across Southeast Asia, India, and the reopening of China,” he continued.

In addition, if you are seeking international flights from USA to India at affordable prices, visit Tripbeam today, the best travel website to book cheap flight tickets to India.

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FCTG’s major investment in FCM Travel Asia pays off

FCM Travel Asia’s technology capabilities and NDC readiness are well ahead of the pack, thanks to a US$200 million investment by parent company Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) in 2019.

Bertrand Saillet, managing director, FCM Travel Asia, who spoke at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit in June, told TTGmice  it was the “first global TMC to attain IATA Level 4 NDC certification”, and is able “to provide Full Offer and Order Management, including booking, servicing, and flight disruption handling”.

He added FCM was also among the first global TMCs to be included in the IATA Airline Retailing Maturity index, and was launch partner of Amadeus’s NDC-X programme and Sabre’s Beyond NDC programme.

FCM was “‘live’ delivering NDC content to corporate customers and was driving pilot programmes in partnership with customers, airlines and OBTs (online booking tools) to discover the best solutions for our wider customer base and create an industry standard”, noted Saillet.

Since 2019, FCTG has made several acquisitions. In 2019, it acquired SAM. Short for Smart Assistant for Mobile, it is available 24/7 and includes an instant live chat with an agent. In 2020, FCTG acquired San Francisco-based WhereTo, an enterprise travel platform and technology company that simplifies and improves business travel planning for corporations.

In 2021, FCTG acquired FCM Extension. Previously known as Shep, the Texas-based software company provides a browser-extension-based communication platform for MNCs. In the same year, FCM Platform, a new proprietary platform was developed to target customers’ pain points with current and legacy corporate travel technology.

He added that the group’s technology investment was addressing the more complex air distribution environment due to the different strategies implemented by the airlines and the acceleration of NDC in Asia.

The omnichannel, Saillet continued, was designed to address six key pillars: a globally consistent booking experience; always available travel assistance; traveller safety and wellbeing support; sustainability; AI-powered reporting and savings, and flexible integration capabilities.

FCTG also took a majority stake in Dubai-based travel firm TPConnects Technologies in 2022 to offer a wider choice of airfares to clients by aggregating airline content from multiple sources, including GDSs, low-cost carriers (LCCs) and the growing number of NDC-enabled booking channels.

In understanding different market needs, FCM has also developed its very own platform for China. Meanwhile in India, FCM Booking was developed and deployed as a proprietary online booking tool in 2022 to cater to the uniqueness and specificity of the market, allowing access to international content, and a wide variety of relevant domestic content including local LCCs and rail.

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Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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The trains and stations of the Moscow Metro

2 Comments · Posted by Alex Smirnov in Cities , Travel , Video

The Moscow Metro is the third most intensive subway system in the world after Tokyo and Seoul subways. The first line was opened on May 15, 1935. Since 1955, the metro has the name of V.I. Lenin.

The system consists of 12 lines with a total length of 305.7 km. Forty four stations are recognized cultural heritage. The largest passenger traffic is in rush hours from 8:00 to 9:00 and from 18:00 to 19:00.

Cellular communication is available on most of the stations of the Moscow Metro. In March 2012, a free Wi-Fi appeared in the Circle Line train. The Moscow Metro is open to passengers from 5:20 to 01:00. The average interval between trains is 2.5 minutes.

The fare is paid by using contactless tickets and contactless smart cards, the passes to the stations are controlled by automatic turnstiles. Ticket offices and ticket vending machines can be found in station vestibules.

Tags:  Moscow city

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Tomás · August 27, 2012 at 11:34 pm

The Moscow metro stations are the best That I know, cars do not.

Alberto Calvo · September 25, 2016 at 8:57 pm

Great videos! Moscow Metro is just spectacular. I actually visited Moscow myself quite recently and wrote a post about my top 7 stations, please check it out and let me know what you think! :)

http://www.arwtravels.com/blog/moscow-metro-top-7-stations-you-cant-miss

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