Retail travel is screwed: Hard to say but, after Flight Centre last week announced it will lose between $825 million and $875 million for the financial year ending June 30, impossible to dispute.

Flight Centre has already sacked or stood down thousands of its staff and closed many of its stores.

Primary bricks and mortar rival Helloworld is treading a similar path, though not as dramatic because it operates a franchise model and doesn’t own the agencies operating under its brand.

Meanwhile, AFTA  Chairman Tom Manwaring told the ABC this week that up to 50% of of its 3000 members could go under by Christmas if they don’t receive targetted government assistance in addition to JobKeeper, resulting in the loss of 20,000 jobs.

But what’s the point?

It’s sad but inevitable that many of these agencies are going under anyway because their business model – which has for so long ignored domestic travel – is structured around high cost international trips and the commissions that come with them.

Now that borders international are closed – a scenario that in some form now may well spill into 2022 – they don’t have a product to sell.

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