EBOOKERS, the online travel company, yesterday said that it would more than treble its support staff in India to about 2,000 as it moves into the provision of back office facilities to other travel companies.
Dinesh Dhameja, chief executive, who was reporting second-quarter figures, said he planned to hire 200 staff at an enlarged back office in New Delhi for work at ebookers, plus a further 1,200 when he signed other companies.
Mr Dhameja said he expected that once it was running at full capacity the New Delhi facility would add £8.5 million to the company’s annual pre-tax profits. He said the jobs created in India would not replace any existing employees in the UK or Europe.
The new facility in India generated savings of £1.4 million for ebookers in the quarter.
The addition of a new source of revenues will help to offset a muted outlook for ebookers’ core long-haul business, which is still suffering from the war in Iraq and the Sars outbreak. The group still managed to beat expectations for the quarter with underlying losses narrowing to £900,000 from £1.7 million a year ago.