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Travel industry sending customer service work overseas

February 20, 2004 |

A growing number of U.S. airlines and online travel companies are sending customer service jobs overseas to reduce costs.

A growing number of U.S. airlines and online travel companies are sending customer service jobs overseas to reduce costs, latching on to a broader economic trend as the industry strives for profitability.

It’s the concept of “outsourcing” — which has loomed large in the political debate over lost jobs in America.

United Airlines has signed a contract with Electronic Data Systems to open a customer call center in Nova Scotia next month that will eventually employ 200, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. It is the first time United has outsourced such work, an arrangement worked out through the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Meanwhile, Travelocity will outsource about 300 jobs to India over the next year in a deal with WNS North America, according to a Feb. 11 filing that Sabre Inc., its parent company, made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Travelocity said it expects to save $10 million in 2004 as a result of the change. United, whose only formal announcement of the plan was made internally, declined to provide a similar estimate for “competitive reasons,” spokeswoman Jean Medina said.

Get the full story at USA Today

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