Flight Centre will shut down another 91 stores across Australia, after widespread travel bans and border closures led to billions of dollars of cancelled bookings.
Hundreds of employees will lose their jobs in these latest store closures.
This was on top of the 4000 sales and support workers that Flight Centre had already axed in the past six months.
It comes three days after the federal government scaled back its fortnightly JobKeeper payments – to $750 for part-time workers, and $1,200 for full-time staff.
These latest cuts will leave the struggling travel agency with 330 surviving retail outlets.
Before COVID-19 struck, Flight Centre had 740 outlets across Australia.
In a statement, the agency said the closures are not expected to impact recovery plans, with 95 per cent of stores closed within five kilometres of a retained shop.
Flight Centre’s chief executive Graham Turner has used the latest cost-cutting measures to argue that Australia’s economic health demands that borders be reopened.
“We have to live with this virus,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
“A vaccine is still some months away – and even if it’s here, the virus will still be around for at least two or three years.
“We need the Australian borders open, we need the New Zealand trans-Tasman [bubble] up and running as soon as possible.”
In August, the company posted a full-year loss of $662 million – a big downgrade from its previous result (a $264 million profit).
–more to come
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