Air France transfers all calls to London

NEWS Air France plans to close nine call centres around Europe and replace them with a single reservations facility in London. The centre will be opened on 19 April, and will take calls from the UK and Ireland. But from June it will handle all calls for Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Air France said it is centralising its operations to improve the quality of customer service; by having a large call centre rather than several smaller ones, it will be able to invest in better technology, it claims. Calls will be routed to the London office from each country, and 240 multilingual staff will be employed to handle the calls. But the company claims there won't be any enforced redundancies, because agents from the nine centres will be relocated or moved to other positions within the company. Frederic Verdier will head the project, and has reportedly said that London was chosen because it is a 'cosmopolitan hotpot', with the necessary language and technology skills. The move has been welcomed by Stephen O'Brien, CEO of inward investment agency, London First Centre. O'Brien said it boosts London's position within Europe and has advantages for international business.