Overseas call-centre staff cut in Air NZ savings bid

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Air New Zealand will close three reservation centres as it cuts costs to stay alive.

Call staff in London, Vancouver and Los Angeles were told on Friday that their centres would shut.

The airline said yesterday that calls to the three centres would be redirected to Auckland and Christchurch from April as part of a move to "consolidate" services to English-speaking people.

It made sense to take the calls in New Zealand because local staff had first-hand knowledge of the country as a destination and knew details of internal travel.

It also meant the airline could offer a 24-hour-a-day service to callers.

At least one of the overseas centres uses answerphones outside normal work hours.

The airline said it would keep its sales, marketing and travel centre services in the English-speaking countries.

It did not say how many people would lose their jobs, but said it would need another 39 fulltime staff in Auckland to deal with the extra work.

Air NZ last year lost a record $1.3 billion and had to be bailed out by the taxpayer.

The airline said in October that it was looking to cut the equivalent of 800 jobs, half in management.

One North American call-centre worker likely to lose his job said Australia's Ansett airline closed call centres in the 1990s to save money and lost half its business in America.

"We had a very unhappy meeting at work," he said.

"The call volume has been so low since September that something had to give."

He was not bitter with the airline, blaming the changes on Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Air NZ said it started trimming its overseas sites after the attacks, which decreased demand for air tickets.

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