[Lindsay Wilson]

From a very reliable source in the industry, I received the following information:

British Airways continues to close call centres

After recently announcing call centre closures in Europe, British
Airways has announced that following an extensive review, its call
centres in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean will be closed by June
this year. In a release issued Thursday, British Airways said that its
call centres in the Caribbean are to be consolidated into its North
American call centre in Jacksonville, Florida this summer.

According to the airline, the call centre in Kingston will close on May
31 and the call centres in Barbados, Antigua and St. Lucia will close on
June 30, 2006. Robin Hayes, the airline's Executive Vice President for
The Americas said the decision was dictated solely by economic and
commercial considerations related to the need to be cost competitive on
a global basis.

Apparently, BA want to have only 3 centres by Jan 2008 from what my source heard - One in the USA, one in Asia, and one in the UK. Doubt that is BA's only reasons (stated), but we'll probably not hear the rest of the real ones.

BA will be very unpopular in the Caribbean after this and I feel sad for the KIN-based staff (having visited Jamaica in Dec 05/Jan 06).

[JohnK]

That seems to be the trend these days.

It really does not matter where the call centre is located. I know it may mean a loss of jobs in some areas, like Kingston, but at the end of day if the service to the customer is not seriously disrupted it will be a good money saving decision.

[serfty]

Originally Posted by JohnK

That seems to be the trend these days.

It really does not matter where the call centre is located. I know it may mean a loss of jobs in some areas, like Kingston, but at the end of day if the service to the customer is not seriously disrupted it will be a good money saving decision.

Many of these o'seas call centre operators I have had to deal consider they speak English, and that's generally true enough.

However, the real problem is many of them cannot speak/understand "strine".

Originally Posted by serfty

Many of these o'seas call centre operators I have had to deal consider they speak English, and that's generally true enough.

However, the real problem is many of them cannot speak/understand "strine".

Reminds me of a 'FatFighters' scene from Little Britain