Travel retailer Flight Centre has warned of an incoming $500 million underlying net loss as the lasting impact of Covid-19 continues.

“Nothing is certain in this market except [that] we will not be paying a dividend in 2022,” Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner told the Macquarie Australia Conference on Tuesday, according to SMH.

“We feel we’re in a reasonable space considering the difficulty of travel and tourism market [but] it’s going to be a reasonably long road back.”

The business said it expects to return to profitable trading in the second half of FY22, as international leisure and business travel return to something close to ‘normal’, and as vaccination plans continue to roll-out around the globe.

Already the business is seeing sales recover, with March sales revenue higher than the previous Covid-period record, and turnover growing 32.7 per cent month on month – up $100 million on February. This led to the business’ first gross quarterly total transaction value of more than $1 billion since the pandemic began.

However, the loss guidance for Flight Centre’s full year fell below already dour predictions by analysts of a $355 million loss, and the business’ share price tumbled to $15.56 per security.