Flight Centre CEO says JobKeeper is a ‘positive scheme’ for stood down workers

Flight Centre founder and CEO Graham Turner says the government’s massive $130 billion JobKeeper package is “quite a positive scheme for us and our people,”

The travel industry was among the first to be decimated by the effects of the coronavirus lockdown.

Last week, Flight Centre made the decision to stand down 3800 Australian workers as demand for domestic and international travel plunged.

Graham Turner says he’s had a good look at the package which will help subsidise the salaries of travel agents who presently find themselves with very little work to do.

“It’s a significant but relatively small part of what we need to do over the next three, six,  twelve months, to survive and prosper as a business,” he tells Money News host Brooke Corte.

“It’s certainly a significant help for us and particularly our people.”

Mr Turner says most of the stood down staff members are on paid annual leave and the JobKeeper payment will “tie them over” until the demand for domestic travel returns.

“It’ll be quite important for us to get domestic travel back as soon as we can, that’s a significant part of our business, it’s nearly half of our business,” he said.

Click PLAY to hear more from Flight Centre CEO Graham Turner: