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US Airways Brings
Back Jobs It Had Previously Shipped Overseas, Hires 400 By Shane Nolan |
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November 1, 2011 - US Airways has returned work previously handled outside of the United States to its call centers in Winston-Salem, N.C., Phoenix, and Reno, Nevada.
The airline's onshore project is part of its agreement
with the Airline Customer Service Employee Association
CWA and IBT, which represents more than 6,000
reservations and airport customer service employees
employed by US Airways.
The new positions meet a contractual requirement to handle all general reservations sales calls originating in the United States in U.S. call centers as of today. Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said, "Today's news is a testament to the positive relationship we have with the Airline Customer Service Employee Association. |
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?The
addition of 400 jobs is extremely good news for these three
communities, for the CWA/IBT, and for our customers who will
continue to receive the outstanding service they have come to
associate with US Airways. The CWA/IBT Association Union is
excited to work with US Airways to bring jobs back into the
Reservations work group," said Velvet Hawthorne, IBT/CWA
Association Chairperson and CWA Staff Representative. "Nothing
speaks louder than solidarity, when we all work together for a
successful airline. We welcome our new Brothers and Sisters,
helping us to provide excellent customer service to our
passengers."
To support
bringing jobs back onshore, in July US Airways launched the
domestic airline industry's first Natural Language Interactive
Voice Response (IVR) system. The new automated system delivers
an extremely fast yet personalized travel experience by offering
the airline's customers a wide range of self-service
capabilities, such as flight information, upgrade status and
Dividend Miles account details.
Senior
Vice President, Operations Planning and Support, Kerry Hester
said, "The IVR not only complements the broad range of
self-service options available to customers on US Airways
website and in the airports; it is also closely integrated with
US Airways' reservations centers so our agents have information
about a customer, such as their name and existing reservation,
as they are connected with callers. This makes the interaction
easier and more efficient for customers."
In addition to its three reservations call centers in the United States, US Airways also operates a call center in Liverpool, England, which handles calls from customers located in international locations. US Airways will employ 1,900 agents by the end of 2011, and the airline handles approximately 18 million calls annually. |