Air Pacific Outsources Telephone Reservations Services

Effective 1 November 2009, Air Pacific and Pacific Sun will outsource their telephone reservations services to Mindpearl, an independently owned global contact centre specialist.

Air Pacific’s current telephone reservations centres in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji will close and all reservations calls from Fiji, Australia and New Zealand will be routed to Mindpearl’s 24 Hour / 7 Day per week Call Centre in Suva.  Subsequently, calls from points in the South Pacific will cutover and in 2010, when the current North American Call Centre contract expires, calls from North America will be routed to Mindpearl in Fiji.

The new Call Centre will provide Air Pacific and Pacific Sun customers 24 hour / 7 day access to make new reservations, ticket purchases, queries on travel and alterations to bookings.  This will provide greatly enhanced service levels for customers in Fiji and improved services across all Air Pacific destinations.

Current Air Pacific and Pacific Sun reservations and call centre services will be provided in Fiji 8:00 to 20:00, 7 days per week until 31 October when cutover to the new Mindpearl Call Centre will occur.

Seventeen jobs at the Air Pacific / Pacific Sun Call Centre in Nadi will become redundant on 31 October 2009.  Staff occupying those jobs will be offered the opportunity to redeploy to a limited number of roles within Air Pacific or be considered to join Mindpearl.  Redundancy payments will be provided for those who leave Air Pacific whether or not they join Mindpearl.

Existing Call Centres in New Zealand, Australia and USA are contracted by Air Pacific to third parties.  These jobs will transfer to Fiji, providing employment for twenty nine Fiji citizens initially, with more positions to be created as Air Pacific and Pacific Sun grow.

The MD & CEO of Air Pacific, John Campbell, said “we welcome Mindpearl to Fiji and are excited by the opportunities that their new facility presents.  A competitive tender to manage Air Pacific’s Call Centre activities was undertaken with companies from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji submitting their bids as well as consideration by Air Pacific for the establishment of an in-house Call Centre facility”.

“The techniques, tools, service and expertise provided as well as cost effective service delivery has resulted in the contract being awarded to Mindpearl”.

Chief Executive Officer of Mindpearl, William Pattison, said “Mindpearl welcomes Fiji’s national and regional airline, Air Pacific and Pacific Sun, as our launch customers in Fiji. Our target is to grow this facility to accommodate 2000 jobs within the next three years”, Pattison said.  “We look forward to welcoming our callers from Australia and New Zealand with the traditional ‘Bula’ greeting, as they make their first call to Air Pacific.  More importantly, this development will relocate jobs, presently in Australia and New Zealand, to the Fijian shores. We’re excited to be part of Fiji’s commerce and industry development in what we believe is the next global contact centre hub. Mindpearl would like to thank the Fiji Trade and Investment Board (FTIB) for not only enticing Mindpearl to look at Fiji as a potential location, but also assisting with the start up of the operation.”

Mindpearl will bring its expertise from Brisbane, Cape Town and Barcelona to do initial training for its first recruits. This contact centre facility will enable callers to book and change reservations for all Air Pacific and Pacific Sun flights, including connections worldwide through Air Pacific’s partner airlines.  During caller peak volume periods, Mindpearl can utilise its contact centre operations in Brisbane, Australia to handle overflow as all its contact centres are linked across the globe.

With a track record spanning ten years and operations in Australia, Spain, South Africa and Fiji, Mindpearl provides services 24 / 7 to leading international airlines around the world in more than 20 languages.  With brands including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Swiss International Air Lines, Libyan Arab Airlines and Brussels Airlines as existing customers, Mindpearl is  once again excited to broaden its service delivery.

Air Pacific, Fiji’s International Airline, operates a fleet of Boeing aircraft to 18 destinations in 11 countries.  Sister airline, Pacific Sun operates a combination of ATR42-500’s, De Havilland Twin Otter’s and Britten Norman Islander’s on Fiji’s domestic routes with the ATR42’s also servicing regional sectors between Suva, Tonga and Funafuti

Mindpearl Company Overview
Established in 1999, Mindpearl became an independently owned global contact centre offering complete outsourced service solutions. In May 2008 Mindpearl formed a strategic alliance with Dubai-based travel services company, Dnata, to accelerate development of new contact centres in strategic locations. Based in Cape Town, Barcelona and Brisbane, services are offered in more than 20 languages, enabling Mindpearl to support leading brands globally.  Mindpearl’s aim is to partner with companies to help maximise business performance and significantly increase profitability.  Through the operation of multi-channel contact centres which employ dedicated, well trained human resource and state of the art technologies, Mindpearl enables global solution-delivery with an emphasis on quality and consistency.

Mindpearl’s best practice, global infrastructure, first-class service delivery and expert training have meant diversification in multiple business industries. Mindpearl provides its clientele with efficient and cost-effective “follow-the-sun” technology to ensure customers are assisted in their native tongue 24/7/365.