PRESS RELEASE
Melbourne serves up corporate travel grand slam over Sydney
30 January 2025 - Flight Centre Corporate, which encompasses FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller, can reveal that Melbourne is set to break a major business travel milestone, as corporates flocked to the city for the Australian Open.
Corporate travellers that flew into Melbourne over the Australian Open semi-final and final days (23-26 January 2025) nearly doubled the volume of flight bookings to Australia’s corporate darling destination, Sydney, during the same time, according to Flight Centre Corporate booking data.
For the first time in at least 18 months, Sydney became the second most booked corporate destination for an entire month in January 2025, as Melbourne takes the top spot.
Flight Centre Corporate Global COO Melissa Elf said she anticipated that would only further grow as Australia lines up to break through pre-pandemic levels of capacity between the two nations for the first time.
“This move means Australian businesses will be able to travel more seamlessly, cost effectively and for longer periods, thanks to the growing demand of corporate and personal travel, and the cutting of red tape,” Ms Elf said.
“China’s appetite for connectivity to Australia and its willingness to invest in our trade relationship is a clear indicator of its critical importance on both sides, and it is great news for the growing travel demand that Flight Centre Corporate continues to see.
“We are leaps and bounds ahead of what the travel experience was just 18 months ago between Australia and China. It was only in March last year that borders were opened between our two countries following the pandemic.
“It’s no coincidence that the uplift in numbers has coincided with the returning capacity from the Chinese carriers. We’ve long been advocates of more airlines, to more destinations, offering more choice – this is a good example of the positive impact it has when this comes to fruition.
“To see that we’ve not only returned to regular operations in that time, but exceeded the level of connectivity that we had in 2019, is truly one of the great success stories of travel globally.
“We’d expect to see corporates adding on extra time to their trips, given this new availability to do so, as they increasingly take up the ‘bleisure’ trend and add holidays to the start or end of a work trip.
“Asia makes up seven of our corporate’s top ten international destinations, which are rounded out with Papua New Guinea, the UK and the U.S.
“It’s a critical hub for our manufacturing, education, mining, construction, and retail sectors, and Shanghai is the most significant destination to Australians, followed by Beijing and Guangzhou.”