Flight Centre's Launceston demise leads to beauty expansion

Galaxy Nails opened its third Launceston store in Kings Meadows on Wednesday, adding to salons in Charles and Brisbane streets.

"I think [they] will do exceptionally well," said leasing agent Blake Shepherd, of Shepherd and Heap.

"They've got some other locations around the city and seem to be very popular in what they provide."

The Hobart Road store had sat empty since COVID, when Flight Centre axed hundreds of stores across the country.

Launceston was not spared from the mass closures.

The brand's former Charles Street store is now home to a mobile repair and sales shop, leaving the corner store on Brisbane and George streets as the city's sole Flight Centre.

Additional stores in George and Paterson streets, which traded under Flight Centre's luxury brand Travel Associates, also made way for a vaping store and a debt collection agency respectively.

Flight Centre had planned to retain its presence in Kings Meadows, but ultimately did not renew the lease on the Hobart Road store.

"It was deemed a required store but then they never reopened," Mr Shepherd said.

"They continued to pay rent all the way through but they couldn't find the staff."

Flight Centre recorded its first full-year profit in four years in 2023.