A symbol of Flight Centre since 1988, “The Captain” is synonymous with the Australian retail travel brand, often standing sentry at the entrance to shops that now span the globe. Now, in a welcome sign of the times, Flight Centre Canada (FCC) has introduced its first female captain, also the company’s first globally.

Along with a team of co-captains, both men and women, the new brand ambassadors accompany a new tagline “Experience our experience,” and brand campaign, “There’s nowhere we haven’t been.”

The Brisbane-based company, which allows different markets to choose their own captains, says its employee demographics and customer base in the leisure market in Canada are now made up by a female majority and therefore decided it was “time for a change.”

“We recognized the need for a Captain to reflect who we are as a team and resonate with our diverse customer base.” says Michelle Suggett, Vice President of Retail. “After more than 25 years of doing business in Canada, we are all so proud to introduce the first female captain in the Flight Centre Travel Group globally.”

Flight Centre’s new captain and the 10 co-captains who join her are all active employees who put their hands up to be a part of the company’s brand refresh. Together they have accumulated 126 years of experience in the travel industry with 132 unique countries stamped on their passport pages, says FCC.

“These co-captains are just a small representation of our global ‘travel brain.’ Flight Centre Travel Group is a worldwide team, and every single one of us is obsessed with, and knowledgeable, about travel,” says Suggett.

The brand’s new tagline, ‘Experience our experience,’ invites Canadians to get to know Flight Centre and to revisit their assumptions about the travel company.

“We hope to deepen travellers’ understanding about who we really are and have always been – a diverse team of travel experts with a diverse range of travel services,” says Suggett.

Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1982, Flight Centre now has nearly 700 stores in Australia and more than 550 overseas locations spread across 10 countries, including New Zealand, the UK, South Africa, Canada, the US (where it is known as Liberty Travel), India (TravelTours), Hong Kong, and Dubai.