👉 Background: Flight Centre is the largest travel agency in Australia by revenue. And, they have that jingle that you'll never forget, "lowest airfares guaranteeeeeed." But there was no singing during COVID for Flight Centre because they genuinely had an existential crisis.

👉 What happened: Now, almost 18 months post border restrictions, Flight centre is back in a big way -  their revenue is up 127% compared to last financial year. They also saw a $485 year-on-year turnaround in their EBITDA.

👉 What else: There are two main reasons for this change in fortune:

• Baby boomers: The majority of Flight Centre's leisure customers are on the older side. And this demographic have been less affected by cost of living pressures
• Staff cuts: Flight Centre cut their staff numbers from 21,000 to 7,000during the peak of COVID. It's back to 14,000 staff now... but still well below its 21,000 pre-pandemic.

What's the key learning?

💡Never let a good crisis go to waste. While the pandemic caused Flight Centre to question its existence, it also forced it to make difficult decisions.

💡By cutting its workforce, Flight Centre managed to become a much leaner company. And over the past 12 months, it managed to generate 92% of its pre-pandemic travel revenue with only 75% of its previous costs.

💡So this existential crisis has forced Flight Centre to do more with less and help set itself up for a strong future.

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