Flight Centre has narrowed its pre-tax full year loss thanks to a recent rebound in travel demand after the impact of the coronavirus pandemic weighed on the travel agency's business in the first three quarters of the year.
It posted a statutory pre-tax loss of $377.8 million for the 2021/22 financial year, a significant improvement on the $601.7 million loss it announced a year earlier.
Its statutory after-tax net loss for the 12 months to June 30 came in at $287.2 million.
Underlying earnings also narrowed sharply to a loss of $183.1 million, within the company's guidance range for a loss between $180 million and $190 million but worse than analyst estimates.
Flight Centre shares dropped after the results, and were trading 5.2 per cent lower at $16.43 each at 1240 AEST, in a firm Australian market.
The company handled $10.34 billion in transactions in fiscal 2022, more than two-and-a-half times the $3.95 billion it managed the year before amid pandemic restrictions.
"Travel demand has recovered rapidly since most governments globally removed or relaxed border restrictions and we have started the new fiscal year with strong momentum," CEO Graham Turner said.
Flight Centre said all of its regions, apart from Asia, returned to profit in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, including Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Its corporate business was profitable for the entire financial year, outpacing the recovery in the business travel segment.
The company said it was seeing strong momentum since the start of the current financial year and was well placed to capitalise on opportunities that would arise.
It said the leisure and corporate businesses were maintaining the recovery in transaction volumes despite July being a traditionally softer trading month, ahead of acceleration globally in early August.
"While Flight Centre does not anticipate full industry recovery during FY23, the company expects to be tracking close its monthly total transaction value (TTV) levels by year-end, assuming conditions continue to normalise," it said.
However, both profit and transaction volumes are expected to be heavily weighted to the second half of the fiscal year, reflecting both seasonality and the anticipated capacity and pricing stabilisation as the year progresses.
The company did not declare a final dividend, meaning shareholders will get nothing for the year.
