Flight Centre reports dip on total sales but sets three-fold gains on full year profit
Travel agency firm Flight Centre Ltd (ASX: FLT) said on Tuesday that it has garnered a three-fold full year profit growth for fiscal 2010, declaring that further earnings growth could be expected for the remaining part of the year.
The country's biggest travel agency company said that as of June of the current year, it has netted a total of $140 million as against the $38 million it registered in fiscal 2009.
Flight Centre attributed the rise in profit to its revenue of $1.795 billion this year as compared to last year's $1.725 as the company managed to reduce its selling, administration and support expenses, further boosting its overall profit.
While the company's total values of sales actually plunged by two percent in 2009/10, registering only $11.02 billion and coming from the prior year's sales of $11.24 billion, the travel agent reported that record global ticket sales was still achieved as lower airfares fuelled higher demands.
Company chief executive Graham Turner is upbeat that more growth would be experienced by Flight Centre as he cited that recovery in business travel, soaring ticket sales and a steady climb of airfares would underpin projected gains.
Mr Turner said that corporate travel in most countries have been picking up over the past year though he clarified that growths seen so far were at moderate levels "so it is still a bit of a way to go, providing there's no second dip."
Flight Centre said that it is set to issue a final dividend distribution of 44 cents per share, pushing its full year payout to 70 cents per security.
As of 1205 AEST on Tuesday, Flight Centre shares were trading at $18.95, gaining traction by 2.7 percent from previous trading session.