Low-cost Indian operation helps ebookers cut losses

NEWS ebookers has reported narrowed losses in its latest financial quarter, and has credited much of that success to its low-cost back office operations which are based in India. The online travel agency recorded a loss of £2m, down from £3.5m in Q2 2002, while gross sales increased 58 per cent year-on-year to £77.9m ebookers is the only European online travel company to have a wholly owned business process outsourcing facility in India. This was its first full quarter of operation, and gave the company an estimated quarterly cost saving of £994,000. ebookers has 350 staff in India carrying out a range of functions including customer service, email sales, telesales, ticketing, dispatch, content entry and internal audit. Dinesh Dhamija, chief executive officer, ebookers plc, said in a statement: "We continue to achieve strong growth, with gross sales 58 per cent ahead of the comparable quarter last year and 10 per cent up on quarter two. We are now benefiting from the cost efficiency of outsourcing our back office to India which also gives us the capacity for significant growth over the coming years." ebookers suffered a blow in May when Travelocity Europe replaced it as AOL Europe's exclusive travel partner.