The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price rose by 3% today.
COVID-19 continues to cause major disruption to domestic and international travel.
However, there may be light at the end of the travel tunnel with the New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian making comments about when the state will start welcoming international travellers.
According to reporting by The Guardian, when asked about whether the state would allow vaccinated Australians to come home from overseas for Christmas, Ms Berejiklian said:
If they are double dosed vaccinated, I think home quarantine is a definite. The traditional hotel quarantine system is no longer relevant when you have 80% of your population double vaccinated.
And it's no longer relevant when the key issue is rates of vaccination. So things will look different.
And as I said if other states aren't ready to welcome home Aussies at 80% double dose New South Wales will be.
And if means more citizens come through to the Sydney airport so be it, the more flights, the better. But obviously we're working through those issues and discussing them at national cabinet and with the Prime Minister.
On top of that, The Guardian also reported that the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has commented:
In states that aren't locking others out … there will be the opportunity for people to go and travel and return to Australia and quarantine at home, and that people in those states who are overseas can come back to Australia.
The caps that are on flights coming into those places … that aren't locking others out, they will be able to receive more and more, and that will be a big change.
What does this mean for the Flight Centre share price?
Investors have sent the Flight Centre market capitalisation 3% higher than it was yesterday as it seems the business now has a target to work towards when it comes to international borders starting to open.
Flight Centre itself has said that it's targeting a return to monthly profitability in both corporate and leisure during FY22. This relies on vaccine efficacy as well as governments opening borders and keeping them open.
The company previously said that had experienced strong and immediate rebounds after travel restrictions are lifted.
To reach break-even, the company needs to generate around half of its pre-COVID total transaction value (TTV) an 40% of its leisure pre-COVID TTV.
