Independent travel buying group CT Partners has reported a record $2 billion total transaction value (TTV) in its latest results, as revealed to Travel Daily exclusively.
The business’ latest TTV included $1 billion from preferred airline production alone.
CT Partners Chief Executive Officer Matt Masson said that the business’ airline income increased from $15 million last year to $22.9 million in FY24, while its land income rose from $2.6 million to $3.1 million, bringing together $26 million in total member overrides, a 48% increase when compared with last year.
“Achieving $2 billion in TTV and a 48% increase in member overrides underscores the power of CT Partners’ approach and the strength of our supplier relationships,” Masson said.
Much of the growth has been organic, as membership numbers didn’t increase a great deal., he added, also noting that the leisure side of the business slightly outperformed the corporate side in the last 12 months.
“Part of it is just market conditions. In FY24, the inflation probably drove average airfares up by 10% or 15% on prior years. So there was some inflationary growth, but there was also growth in passenger numbers and that demand,” he told Travel Daily in an exclusive interview.
“I think it was the last full financial year that we’ll see of that post-COVID demand, what they call ‘revenge travel’. I feel in the coming 12 months, we’ll be returning to the first almost-normal operating period in the post-COVID environment.”
Masson pointed out that the business grew top line air revenue from about $700 million to over $1 billion.
“We expanded our direct air agreement, so we’re up to about 32 direct airline agreements, and that’s helped us build a close relationship between the airlines and our members, and we’ve got access to good fares.”
The positive results were revealed at this year’s three-day CT Partners annual conference in Hoi An, Vietnam, attended by 100 delegates including major conference sponsor Singapore Airlines, ATIA CEO Dean Long and keynote speaker, Vietnam travel expert, Mark Bowyer.
During CT Partners’ AGM, Anna McMurtie from Wentworth Travel was re-elected, while Mark Chaskiel from FBI Travel announced his departure.
Alongside McMurtie, the board of directors includes: Joe Araullo, TravelManagers; Peter Muller, ATPI; Fiona Prosser, Globetrotter Travel; Michael Chase-Smith, Orbit World Travel; Shane Barr, TAG; and Gary Reichenberg, Connections Travel Group.
“This year’s annual general meeting celebrates 20 years of CT Partners’ success, and as we look to the full-year 2025, we remain focused on further enhancing our premium travel offerings and driving value for our members,” said Masson.
As for the current corporate travel landscape, Masson has noticed that while Australians may now travel less frequently for work, the length of their trips is slightly increasing.
“ We’ve also seen an increase in off-site meetings and people bringing their teams together,” he said.
“A lot of corporate travel companies and other businesses have remote-based employees and a hybrid working model, so it’s important to do a quarterly [meeting] offsite, where they bring everyone together, just for team-building or to go through their strategy.”
