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US Airways Brings Back Jobs from Overseas, Hires 400

Dépèche transmise le 1 novembre 2011 par Business Wire

TEMPE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--US Airways (NYSE: LCC) announced today it has returned work previously handled outside of the United States to its call centers in Winston-Salem, N.C., Phoenix, and Reno, Nev. 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 by Nov. 1, 2011.

“The CWA/IBT Association Union is excited to work with US Airways to bring jobs back into the Reservations work group”

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. 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 usairways.com 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.

The airline will host events open to members of the media to celebrate 150 new jobs at its Reservations center in Phoenix and 200 new jobs in Winston-Salem. Event details are as follows:

About US Airways

US Airways, along with US Airways Shuttle and US Airways Express, operates more than 3,000 flights per day and serves 200 communities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Central and South America. The airline employs more than 32,000 aviation professionals worldwide and is a member of the Star Alliance network, which offers its customers more than 21,000 daily flights to 1,185 airports in 185 countries. Together with its US Airways Express partners, the airline serves approximately 80 million passengers each year and operates hubs in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Phoenix, and a focus city in Washington, D.C. at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. US Airways was the only airline included as one of the 50 best companies to work for in the U.S. by LATINA Style magazine’s 50 Report for 2010 and 2011. The airline also earned a 100 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality index for the sixth year in a row. The Corporate Equality index is a leading indicator of companies’ attitudes and policies toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees and customers. US Airways also ranked #1 among its competing hub-and-spoke network carriers for 2010 performance as rated by the Wichita State University/Purdue University Airline Quality Rating (AQR). For more company information visit usairways.com, follow on Twitter @USAirways or at Facebook.com/USAirways. (LCCG)

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