ASIC's daily reports through the closure of Australia's international border in March 2020, the equity raising that followed and the two years after it.
Figures are the short interest as a percentage of units on issue, from ASIC data, 528 points between 3 Jun 2019 and 30 Jun 2021.
FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL was already a mid-single-digit short before anything unusual happened: 4.84% of its units on issue on 3 Jun 2019, and roughly that level through the second half of 2019.
The window's high came more than a year into the pandemic, at 10.64% on 21 May 2021, by which time Australia's international border had been closed to most travellers for over a year. The position ended the window at 9.84% on 30 Jun 2021.
Australia closed its international border to non-citizens and non-residents from 20 March 2020. The company announced shop closures during that year and raised new equity from shareholders in April 2020. The reported position rose steeply in the first weeks of April and then dropped by more than half within a single day.
That one-day drop is a denominator effect, not a mass covering. ASIC divides the reported short position by total product in issue, so an equity raising of that size lowers the percentage even where the positions themselves are unchanged. The window's low, 3.35% on 20 Apr 2020, sits immediately after the step rather than at the point of least short selling, which is the clearest reason to read a percentage series alongside the company's own announcements.
Full history and today's figure: FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL.
Figures are as published by the ASIC; this site is not affiliated with it. The narrative describes what the published figures showed and widely reported public events around them; it is not a description of any company's prospects and is not investment advice.