Etihad to create 160 jobs at contact centre
MIDDLE East airline Etihad is to create up to 160 jobs at a new European contact centre in Manchester which will open next year.
The fast-growing Abu Dhabi-based carrier said the facility would be located on the Manchester Airport campus.
Welcoming the news at a press conference today Manchester city council leader Sir Richard Leese said: “This was a commercial decision taken for hard-nosed commercial reasons. I am very grateful for the confidence Etihad is showing in Manchester.”
Trade minister Lord Green welcomed the news as a ‘boost for Manchester.’
“Etihad has chosen Manchester for its international connections, its strong telecommunications and ICT infrastructure as well as its supply of language talent.”
Etihad’s chief executive James Hogan added: “Our contact centres handle around 2.5 million calls each year, and we expect more than half of these calls to originate from non-Arabic speaking markets by 2012.
“As our network continues to grow, it is increasingly important for us to provide high quality, multilingual assistance for customers who choose to book directly with the airline.
“We looked closely at a range of potential locations in the United Kingdom and Europe, and undertook extensive research to find the location that offered us a population base with the right mix of languages and skill sets, as well as a high quality of telecommunications infrastructure.
“Manchester offered everything we needed, and had the added attraction of having strong, well-established business links with Abu Dhabi – a relationship we look forward to developing further.”
Etihad, which recently annnounced an expansion of its Manchester-Abu Dhabi services to twice daily from May, has also opened a new business class loungue at Terminal 1.
The airline, which is also major sponsor of Manchester City FC, chose Manchester over Dublin and Malta.
Its Dubai-based rival, Emirates, is also creating jobs in the North West, as a result of its expansion to three daily flights.
The 35 positions will be created both at the airport and at the airline’s European call centre in Wilmslow. Once filled, the jobs will take the total number of Emirates employees in the region to more than 400.
