verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message flight centre travel group type public asx flt industry travel founded 1982 ; 34 years ago headquarters brisbane queensland australia area served australia new zealand the united kingdom canada the united states the united arab emirates south africa hong kong singapore india and china key people graham skroo turner managing director 1 revenue a 2.36 billion 2015 profit a 257.0 million 2015 number of employees approx 18 500 2015 2 website flightcentre.com flight centre travel group fctg is an australian based international travel company and the largest retail travel outlet in australia . its global operations include stores in australia new zealand the united states united kingdom canada india china hong kong mexico ireland singapore the uae and south africa . the company is listed on the australian stock exchange asx flt with an annual total turnover of 17 billion as at june 2015 . it has more than 2 500 stores in the 12 equity countries with over 18 500 staff globally . fctg operates many specialist brands including fcm travel solutions corporate traveller campus travel cievents stage & screen travel services student flights escape travel cruiseabout quickbeds liberty travel gogo worldwide vacations & worldwide traveler . it has licensee arrangements in a further 80 countries under its fcm corporate brand . 3 history edit a couple walk into a flight centre store in manchester united kingdom . flight centre store in north america flight centre north end road fulham london co founded by graham turner and geoff harris in 1981 4 the first flight centre australia store opening in sydney in 1982 with assistance from bill james . bill now runs flight centre foundation and sits on the board for the kokoda track foundation 5 6 turner and james had previously run a successful budget bus trip company in europe called topdeck . by 1990 flight centre had opened stores in new zealand the united kingdom and the united states . expansion slowed with the onset of the gulf war which closed several overseas offices . however it picked up again with a move to south africa in 1994 and canada in early 1995 and flight centre uk also opened in 1995 . 7 united states operations recommenced in late 1999 with the company expanding its american operations with the purchase of liberty travel in 2008 bannockburn travel management and garber travel . 8 in late 2015 fctg began a more aggressive push to expand its online presence . this included the purchase of us based studentuniverse.com and brisbane based byojet.com as well as beginning work on a new in house brand called aunt betty . 9 until that point the company had largely remained based through physical retail outlets . references edit board profiles . flight centre limited . retrieved 17 august 2015 . annual report 2011 pdf . flight centre limited . retrieved 17 june 2012 . http www.fctgl.com sites fctgl.com files 150918 % 20fy15 % 20flt % 20annual % 20report.pdf pip coates to have and to hold geoff harris . worth 975 million . rank 40 the australian financial review magazine july 2014 p. 22 http www.kokodatrackfoundation.org board of directors.aspx flight centre . flight centre limited . retrieved 17 august 2015 . andr sammartino 2007 retail in dick h. & merrett d. eds . the internationalisation strategies of small country firms the australian experience of globalisation edward elgar cheltenham uk pp. 175 194 . liberty travel . flight centre limited . retrieved 17 august 2015 . media releases . retrieved 2016 08 01 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to flight centre . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title flight centre & oldid 744496096 categories travel agenciestravel and holiday companies of australiatravel and holiday companies of the united kingdomtravel and holiday companies of the united statestravel and holiday companies of canadacompanies based in brisbanecompanies established in 19821982 establishments in australiahidden categories use dmy dates from april 2013use australian english from july 2011all wikipedia articles written in australian englisharticles needing additional references from april 2014all articles needing additional referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscommons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 15 october 2016 at 16 28 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view