News 2002

26 November
Flight Centre Limited launches Campus Travel

Flight Centre Limited today (November 26) launched a new business tailored specifically for the travel needs of Australian universities, tapping into a national market estimated to be in excess of $100 million annually.

General manager of the travel retailer's corporate division, Daniel O'Brien, said its newest brand, Campus Travel, would provide on-site and off-site travel solutions for university professionals and students.

The model was developed over a seven-year period at the University of New England and further refined for what was expected to be a national roll out of the specialty brand during 14 months of consultancy with the University of Queensland.

The University of Queensland has appointed Campus Travel as its on-site travel provider, with the new business expected to open its doors for the start of the 2003 academic year.

"It was a lengthy process working specifically with The University of Queensland understanding their needs and tailoring a solution to meet their requirements," Mr O'Brien said.

"Campus Travel opens up a brand new opportunity for us in the marketplace. Now that we have this business model it will be a priority of ours to offer it to other universities and hopefully establish a presence Australia-wide.

"We have been working closely with a number of universities that can see the value in having on-campus consultants to coordinate and tailor travel solutions.

"For professional staff travelling to other parts of the world for research, conferences or as guest lecturers, through to students going on backpacking holidays or study trips, this new business will be close at hand and ready to help," he said.

Flight Centre Limited chief executive officer Shane Flynn said Campus Travel combined the expertise of two of the parent company's proven brands in Student Flights and SBT Business Travel Solutions as well as drawing on the strengths of other businesses within the Flight Centre group.

"Campus Travel will be able to give customers a total range of travel options from the most economic travel deals for those on a budget through to the best-value deals for those after state of the art corporate travel management," Mr Flynn said.

From a single retail outlet in Sydney 21 years ago, Flight Centre Limited has grown into a vast international network of more than 1000 shops and businesses with operations in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the UK, South Africa and Hong Kong.

Expanding at the rate of more than 20% a year, Flight Centre Limited opens a new shop or office every 20 working hours and is recognised as one of the fastest growing businesses of its kind in the world. It has a global workforce of more than 4000.