The Flight Centre Travel Group (ASX: FLT) share price has had a better run lately than its ASX 200 travel share peers Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) and Webjet Ltd (ASX: WEB).
The company's share price has surged 16% since 4 February. The Qantas share price is up around 5% over the same period while Webjet has rocketed 14%.
Today, though, the travel companies are in descent. Flight Centre is down 2.06%, trading at $20.40 at the time of writing. Qantas is 2.22% lower while Webjet is 2.87% in the red.
Let's look at why Flight Centre has taken off lately.
What lifted Flight Centre?
The Flight Centre share price was the top performer on the ASX 200 last week.
The company's share price lifted on the back of the federal government announcing international borders will open on February 21.
Flight Centre Travel Group managing director Australia James Kavanagh described the reopening as "momentous" for small and big businesses, as quoted in international exhibition industry magazine Exhibition World.
It has been a long time coming but the critical part is once we open to the world, we stay open, and that will naturally inject real confidence into people wanting to travel.
There is no doubt visas, exemptions, and quarantine have all been a big hindrance to the corporate world – and although we expect some meetings and events to still exist in a virtual of hybrid manner – now is the time to get on planes to see colleagues, clients, and potential new customers.
Also last week, Flight Centre put out a media release announcing the appointment of Tom Walley as the new global manager of the company's small and medium enterprises division. Walley said;
We have an ambitious target of welcoming $1 billion (USD) of new customers in the 2023 financial year globally and there are three things that will help us achieve this goal – our people, the great service they provide, and our investment in technology
However, as my Foolish colleague Tristan reported on Thursday, Macquarie has a hold rating on Flight Centre. The broker thinks 2023 will be the year that delivers better profitability.
Today, Flight Centre launched its first reconciliation action plan.
Kavanagh said Flight Centre hopes to increase education and employment in first nations communities. He said:
2022 represents a very significant milestone for us as we celebrate 40 years of doing business. It's both a privilege and an honour to be able to establish our Reconciliation Action Plan goals during this milestone year for our company.
Flight Centre share price recap
The Flight Centre share price has surged around 44% in the past year. In the past week alone, the company's shares have gained 16%.
For perspective, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has returned around 6% over the past year.
Flight Centre has a market capitalisation of about $4 billion based on today's share price.
