Brokers also claim it could be two years before profits get back to where they were before the COVID-19 travel bans and Morgans has forecast the company’s earnings will slump to a loss of $409 million this year, down from the $263 million profit last year.

But the $700 million capital raising by the company and its debt capacity will only keep the company’s head above water for 13 to 15 months, according to Morgans.

“Flight Centre’s own view is that the restrictions on domestic travel could be lifted in two to three months’ time; corporate travel could start to pick-up in July; while international travel is likely to be minimal for six months (returning in maybe September/October),” Morgans said in a note to clients.

“Essentially, once travel restrictions and quarantine rules are lifted in individual geographies it expects travel will resume. It also highlighted the extremely attractive airfares currently on offer which should eventually stimulate strong demand.

“Management said that a full recovery will take time and expects travel activity to be about 75-80 per cent of its pre-COVID-19 levels in 12 months’ time.

“Management highlighted that China bookings are starting to show signs of a gradual recovery and have increased 1520 per cent from its lows.

The embattled company’s shares fell sharply to $10.61 at this morning’s open, but this is well above the $7.20 rights issue offer price, allowing customers to make profits if they sell into the market.

RB Capital Markets said there were still a lot of uncertainties around travel restrictions and whether people will permanently shift to on-line travel bookings.

“We do not anticipate FLT’s earnings will recover to (the same level of the 2020 first half) until 2023,” the broker said.

The company is facing an angry customer backlash with reports that Flight Centre staff are facing abuse. Customers have been told there were 170,000 claims for refunds and staff stand-downs and redundancies have impacted Flight Centre’s ability to deal with them quickly.

A spokesman said Flight Centre normally did about $1 billion a month in sales.

“We have thousands of customers and forward bookings and many of them now need to be changed, which is what we and our people are currently working through,” he said.

“Not everyone wants a refund. Many will leave funds on file to be used for future bookings, but the number of people who are requesting refunds will inevitably increase while government travel restrictions are in place and there’s no clarity around when domestic and international borders will reopen.

“It’s a complex and time-consuming process to get a refund back from the airline or supplier and some airlines are saying it may take up to six months. It’s typically around three months in a normal operating climate.”