Qantas Airways vs Flight Centre shares: Which ASX travel stock comes out on top?

When Aussies weigh up travel shares, two names stand out: Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) and Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT). Both are iconic in the tourism sector but offer very different business models and investment profiles. With both now back paying fully franked dividends and facing unique headwinds post-COVID, which travel stock is the better buy today? Here’s what I found digging into the fundamentals, latest prices, and dividend records.

The case for Qantas Airways

Qantas is the national flag carrier, founded in 1920 and today best known for its strong safety record and premium service on regional, domestic, and international flights. Its core operation is flying people and cargo, balanced between its full-service Qantas brand and the value-focused Jetstar arm. Qantas has survived decades of industry shocks, most recently navigating the COVID-19 pandemic’s massive hit to global travel demand.

Three key standouts for Qantas right now:

• Dividend comeback: After pausing dividends during COVID, Qantas resumed payouts in 2025 and is now offering a fully franked yield of 4.43% — slightly higher than Flight Centre’s, with consistent recent interim and final payments.
• Lower P/E ratio: Qantas trades on a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.57, notably undercutting Flight Centre in the current market snapshot, which could appeal to value-minded investors.
• Market strength: With a market cap of $13.51 billion, Qantas is by far the bigger business, giving it deeper pockets and what I see as stronger resilience if conditions worsen.

Qantas is recognised for safety and reliability and is considered one of the best long-distance carriers globally. Its 100% franked dividends may also appeal to income-seeking shareholders.

The case for Flight Centre Travel Group

Flight Centre, launched in 1982, has grown from a single travel shop to a sprawling, multi-brand operation with stores across Australia and overseas. It’s not an airline — it’s a travel retailer and agency, connecting consumers to flights, cruises (with its recent Iglu acquisition in the UK), tours, and corporate travel services. Its business is highly sensitive to discretionary travel demand but looks arguably less asset-heavy than Qantas.

Here’s what jumped out for Flight Centre:

• Dividend stability: FLT resumed and then lifted dividends since travel bounced back, with $0.42 per share fully franked paid out over the last year, close to Qantas’s $0.40, and a yield of 4.13% at current prices.
• Recent M&A activity: Its acquisition of Iglu, a UK cruise specialist in 2026, hints at an active global strategy even as the broader sector remains tricky.
• Smaller size, higher P/E: FLT’s market cap is $2.07 billion — much smaller than Qantas — and its P/E ratio stands at 14.65, higher than Qantas’s but not unreasonable for a company emerging from major disruption.

Flight Centre’s extensive network and global reach are highlighted, but the business remains primarily a travel agent rather than an operator of transport assets.

Valuation comparison

Here’s how the two travel giants line up on the numbers that matter:

Metric	Qantas Airways	Flight Centre
Market Cap	$13.51 billion	$2.07 billion
P/E Ratio	10.57	14.65
Dividend Yield	4.43% (100% franked)	4.13% (100% franked)
Dividend per Share	$0.40	$0.42
EPS	0.845	0.695
Year to Date Return	-10.15%	-29.38%

Recent share price performance

Both Qantas and Flight Centre have had a tough run recently, likely reflecting cost pressures and patchy confidence in the travel sector.

Comparing recent share price action up to 25 September:

• Qantas closed at $8.93, down 1.0% for the day and showing a year-to-date decline of 10.2%.
• Flight Centre closed at $10.18, down 1.3% for the day, but its YTD performance is much worse, with a steep 29.4% fall since the start of the year.

Which is the better buy?

For me, Qantas Airways stands out as the stronger buy right now. It’s delivering a slightly higher, fully franked dividend, trades on a lower price-to-earnings multiple, and has seen less share price carnage this year than Flight Centre. While both companies are exposed to the health of the travel sector, Qantas appears more resilient thanks to its scale, operating profits, and core transport assets.

Flight Centre does have merit with its recent move into cruises and persistent dividends, but its combination of a higher P/E and much weaker share price momentum makes me cautious. If you’re seeking relatively defensive exposure to the travel rebound, my pick would be Qantas, given its more attractive valuation and better recent performance. I’d be watching Flight Centre for a clearer turnaround and further evidence that earnings can recover.

The post Qantas Airways vs Flight Centre: Which ASX travel stock is the better buy today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Laura Stewart has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Flight Centre Travel Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips. This article was prepared with the assistance of Large Language Model (LLM) tools for the initial draft. Any content assisted by AI is subject to our robust human-in-the-loop quality control framework, involving thorough review, substantial editing, and fact-checking by our experienced writers and editors holding appropriate credentials. The Motley Fool Australia stands behind the work of our editorial team and takes ultimate responsibility for the content published by The Motley Fool Australia.

After a lot of volatility for the stock market, there are a large number of opportunities out there that look like very cheap ASX shares, in my opinion.

We can’t control share prices, but we can control when we invest. When valuations are hitting, or close to, 52-week lows, I think there’s good chance to pick up a bargain.   

I think the two stocks below are excellent opportunities today.

Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW)

The first business I want to highlight is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that’s invested across a range of commercial properties in different sectors.

It provides exposure to industrial and logistics, data centres, social infrastructure, offices, hotels, service stations and retail.

The prospect of even higher interest rates is acting as a headwind on the unit prices of REITs like Charter Hall Long WALE REIT. Over the past year, the Charter Hall Long WALE REIT unit price has dropped 27%, making it a lot cheaper.

The business is generating almost as much rental income as possible from its portfolio. Its occupancy rate was 99.9% at the end of FY26, with 99% leased to reliable blue-chip tenants. Pleasingly, it has a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of around nine years, which means a lot of rental income has already been locked in for the years ahead.  

It’s a lot cheaper and it now looks very good value compared to its underlying balance sheet. It reported net tangible assets (NTA) of $4.71 as at June 2026, so it’s trading at an appealing 31% discount to that NTA.

One of the main reasons why I think it’s an obvious cheap ASX share pick is because it’s projected to pay an annual distribution of 25.5 cents per security in FY27. That means it could pay a distribution yield of 7.9%! I think that’s close to the best forward distribution yield investors could get from the REIT over the past decade.

Collins Foods Ltd (ASX: CKF)

Another ASX share that looks to me like it’s trading far too cheaply is Collins Foods, a KFC franchisee operator with operations in Australia and Europe.

As a consumer-facing business, the company may be viewed by some investors as being exposed to a potential downturn. The Collins Foods share price has fallen 27% over the past year, making it seem a lot cheaper.

But, the company’s financials don’t seem to show any sign of a downturn.

At the start of September, the company announced a trading update for the first 17 weeks, total company sales were up 6.6%, with 6.4% growth for Australian sales, 44% growth for Germany and a 2.5% decline in the Netherlands.

Management are optimistic that initiatives in Australia and Germany can continue to deliver solid performance in those two important markets. For example, it is trialling breakfast in Gold Coast restaurants.  

With plans to continue to expand its global restaurant network over time, I think the prospects look promising for both revenue and earnings growth for Collins Foods, so the sell-off makes this look like a very cheap ASX share to me.

Based on the projection on CMC Invest, the Collins Foods share price is now trading at under 15x FY27’s estimated earnings.

These aren’t the only two cheap ASX shares out there that look really good value to me, so I’d add other stocks to my watchlist, too.

The post 2 very cheap ASX shares near 52-week lows I’d buy today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Collins Foods. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

At 2:30pm AEST, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was up 0.1% at 8,687.5 points as investors awaited today’s interest rate decision.

Then the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released that rate decision, and the ASX 200 promptly dropped 0.2% to 8,668.3 points.

With concerns over persistently high inflation rising, market expectations of an RBA interest rate increase had jumped to 92% prior to today’s announcement, according to the ASX’s RBA rate tracker.

And the market’s expectations proved to be spot on.

At its meeting today, the RBA board decided to increase the cash rate target by 0.25% to the new 4.60%.

This marks the fourth interest rate hike by Australia’s central bank this year. And it sees Australia’s official cash rate at the highest levels since October 2011.

When Aussies turned over the calendar onto 2026, the rate stood at 3.60%. And most analysts were forecasting rate cuts ahead.

Here’s why that’s not happening.

ASX 200 wobbles as RBA boosts interest rates again

Commenting on today’s decision, the RBA noted, “Inflation remains elevated and some of the upside risks flagged in August are materialising.”

And ASX 200 investors look to have both the fallout from the Iran war and the ongoing AI boom to thank for today’s interest rate boost.

According to the RBA:

The conflict in the Middle East has broadened and global energy prices are now much higher than had been assumed in the August forecasts. AI-related demand is driving rapid growth in global prices for technology-related goods.

As far as the domestic economy is going, the central bank cited “heightened” uncertainties about the outlook for Australia’s economic activity and inflation.

The RBA noted:

There are signs that growth in consumer spending is easing gradually as expected, although housing prices have fallen in most capital cities and new housing loans have declined noticeably. Labour market conditions have eased broadly as expected in recent months, and labour market leading indicators are broadly stable. Meanwhile, growth in business investment and debt is strong.

The board’s decision to lift interest rates today was unanimous.

What are the experts saying?

Commenting on today’s RBA interest rate decision that’s pressuring the ASX 200, Ronak Bhimjiani, real estate economist at JLL Australia, said, “While largely anticipated by markets, the move reflects a Board increasingly focused on persistent underlying inflation and stronger-than-expected economic growth.”

Bhimjiani added:

For real assets, higher borrowing costs will continue to sharpen investor discipline, with pricing and underwriting assumptions likely to remain conservative in the near term.

However, income resilience remains a defining theme. With inflation still tracking above the RBA’s target band, rental growth continues to provide a natural buffer, helping preserve real returns and supporting the appeal of well-leased assets relative to other investment classes.

The post ASX 200 slips as RBA boosts interest rates to 15-year highs appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.