Flight Centre Launches 4th Dimension in Australia

The Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has launched 4th Dimension, its Australian-based consulting division.

Leveraging travel data from parent company FCTG's global network as well as third party sources, 4th Dimension will offer private and public organisations unique travel program benchmarking services, as well as advisory services for airline and hotel rate sourcing, program analysis and contract procurement.

John Veitch, executive general manager of FCTG's Australian corporate division, said the company recognised the potential for significant organic and new client growth through consulting and viewed 4th Dimension as a strategic expansion of the group's current offering in the corporate market.

4th Dimension is FCTG's sixth corporate business to launch in Australia. It will work alongside its other key corporate brands including:

- Stage and Screen Travel Services (entertainment travel management)
- Campus Travel (academic travel management)
- Corporate Traveller (small-to-mid market business travel management)
- FCm Travel Solutions (mid-to-large market business travel management)
- cievents (meetings, incentives, conference and event travel management)

"The corporate travel market is now as diversified as the leisure market. FCTG's expansion in the corporate sector to date reflects this diversity with dedicated brands offering specialised services," said John. "The establishment of 4th Dimension as a consulting service means we now have a highly experienced team to provide dedicated support for companies looking to outsource aspects such as contract procurement, rate sourcing, benchmarking and provide strategies for program process enhancements. 4th Dimension will be focused on offering products and services to extend and compliment what we are offering already."

With its main office in Sydney but offering services nationally, the 4th Dimension team includes highly experienced industry professionals with backgrounds in travel, finance and procurement.

The company's senior advisor Virginia Fitzpatrick, said, "Research shows that companies with limited procurement resources achieve strong results from the travel category when contract supply, benchmarking, and strategic elements like process improvement and change management are outsourced to dedicated advisors or consultants ... These are complex areas of corporate travel management that require broader research, planning and sophisticated analysis tools which my team of sourcing contractors and commercial analysts, have access to."

Virginia said the space where account management stopped and specialist consulting started "was the service gap that 4th Dimension would be targeting for the Flight Centre group".