American Airlines Moves Call Center to India
March 08, 2007
American Airlines is making a major change with its call center operations, shifting its Asia Pacific center from Australia to India. Considering the significant crunch the Australian call center market has felt with jobs shifting to India, this announcement is sure to ignite controversy in the industry there as American is the world’s largest airliner.
Bird Information Systems Pvt. Ltd. (BIS), a technology provider of automated aviation and travel related software solutions, has been appointed by American to provide call center services for travel related queries of its customers in India and the Asia Pacific region.
This agreement comes on the heels of an earlier City Ticket Office (CTO) agreement, which American Airlines signed with the Bird Group last year. Current operations for American Airlines includes a daily Dehli-Chicago nonstop service with connections to more than 125 cities in the United States from Chicago.
Under this long-term contract, Bird Information Systems Private Limited will provide American Airlines with 24 X 7, 365 days a year call center services that will handle all customer requests related to travel bookings, reservation, fares, ticketing (including E-Tickets) and other general information related to the airline.
The outsourced City Ticket Office operations are run in four major cities, including Dehli, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. The outsourced Call Center operations are run from the state of the art office located at the heart of the commercial hub in Dehli in Connaught Place.
Nisha Maharaj Regional Manager, Indian Subcontinent, American Airlines, said in a statement, “At American Airlines our entire focus is on providing a seamless and unique flying experience to our customers. India is a strategic market for American Airlines and we are pleased with the excellent response received for our Delhi-Chicago nonstop service.”
Ankur Bhatia, executive director, Bird Group, added that this partnership is yet another step towards strengthening its commitment to the travel and aviation industry as it facilitates easy information accessibility for travelers choosing to travel with American Airlines.
Despite the fact that consumers have expressed significant opposition to offshoring of customer service operations, India remains a very viable option for organizations searching for alternatives to solutions that tend to be a large drain on capital resources – such as the call center. American Airlines has been pleased with the services from BIS thus far, and therefore has seen the value in extending the partnership.
The customers’ reaction is yet to be voiced.
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