Caribbean Airlines expanding call centre team in Jamaica
Caribbean Airlines, which has invested in new planes, new routes, new destinations, and has upgraded cargo and in-flight commerce, is seeking a bigger support team to sell its flight product. Consequently, the airline company opened a call last month for call centre workers for its offices at 120 Old Hope Road in Kingston.
“Pending regulatory approvals, there will be new destinations added to our network. There is also expansion planned for our Jetpak courier service into Jamaica and other territories,” the company’s communications unit told Sunday Business.
The company said: “We are on the lookout for individuals to join our call centre team as reservation agents. Caribbean Airlines is seeking to fill several vacancies at our call centre and also to create a database of potential hires.”
The call centre, which is part of the Reservations Department, remained in place through the transition from Air Jamaica since November 01, 2010. It is located at Caribbean Airlines’ office at Old Hope Road, Kingston 6, and is managed by Caribbean Airlines.
Destinations currently served, it said, are Antigua, Barbados, Caracas, Curacao, Dominica, Georgetown (Guyana), Grenada, Havana, Kingston, Nassau, Ogle (Guyana), St Kitts, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Vincent, Suriname, Tobago, Trinidad, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, New York, Toronto.
The airline occupies key hubs in Port-of-Spain, Kingston-Norman Manley, and Georgetown-Cheddi Jagan. Trinidad and Tobago’s government owns an 88.1 per cent stake, complemented by 11.9 per cent which is owned by the government of Jamaica.
Post-COVID, Caribbean Airlines cut 25 per cent of employees and stored many of its aircrafts. But, after Trinidad and Tobago’s borders reopened in July 2021, the airline renewed service to destinations across the region.
Since that time, the airline has grown staff to over 1,700. It is currently run by CEO Garvin Medera.
Anand Biradar, president of the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ), said that he was unsure of the company’s activities, since they were not a part of the association.
Other local companies offer airline support services. BPO company Conduent is currently recruiting chat agents for “an airline travel company” for its centres in western Jamaica.
Nice Global is also seeking transportation agents with “appointment setting, ticketing, transportation, airline, reservation experience”.
In the second week of November 2023, the airline indicated that it was on the way to reporting profit for the first time in four years.
In 2019, the airline posted its first profit of US$4 million. Caribbean Airlines operates on a fiscal year coinciding with the calendar year.
CEO Medera, speaking at an accounting conference in Trinidad in November, noted that, in 2020, as a result of the pandemic, the company incurred a US$109 million loss. He said that results for the full year 2023 were expected to show profit.