The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price is under pressure on Thursday.
In afternoon trade, the travel agent's shares are down 2% to $17.64.
This means the Flight Centre share price is down 16% since this time last month.
Is the Flight Centre share price in the buy zone now?
Despite its disappointing decline over the last few weeks, the team at Goldman Sachs continue to sit on the fence with the Flight Centre share price.
According to a note out of the investment bank this morning, the broker has retained its neutral rating on the company's shares.
However, its new price target of $20.40 still implies attractive upside of 15.5% over the next 12 months
What did the broker say?
Goldman has been looking at the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the impact it could have on the travel market.
It commented: "Our global macro team published 4 scenarios on the Omicron variant and early signs indicate that it is likely more consistent with the downside scenario which implies a large Q1 infection wave but with vaccines still protecting against a severe disease resulting in lower hospitalization rates."
"In our view, the implications for travel from this scenario would be an initial slowdown in searches and interest driven by the uncertainty, followed by a quick recovery. However, travel is likely to remain impacted for longer for the Southern African regions where travel bans have been imposed by several countries," it added.
The good news is that after weighing everything up, the broker sees disruption in FY 2022 but no real impact in FY 2023.
Goldman explained: "We've always expected to see occasional hiccups like new variants to impact recovery through the roadmap to global full recovery in FY24. However, FLT has a significant business in South Africa, which has also been one of the leads in terms of recovery. We expect a slowdown in recovery in the EMEA region in late 1H22 and early 2H22. We however make no changes to our outlook into FY23 and beyond as a result of the Omicron outbreak."
Though, as mentioned above, it isn't enough for Goldman to be a little more positive on the Flight Centre share price. It continues to prefer Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB), as discussed here.
