THE Lufthansa Group is set to hire 440 highly qualified consultants to man its newly opened outsourcing office in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.
During the launching of Lufthansa Services Philippines on Friday, Kay Kratky, the group’s German Airline board member and Austrian Airline CEO, said the new office is the result of a joint partnership between two business units of the group—the Lufthansa Global Business Services and Lufthansa InTouch —which provide services in the areas of financial and revenue accounting.
“Lufthansa Group is strengthening its footprint in Southeast Asia and particularly in the Philippines. We already have the Lufthansa Group passenger airline sale office, Lufthansa Technik Philippines, and now, we are pleased to welcome Lufthansa Services Philippines to the family,” said Kratky.
“Manila is now an attractive business location due to its excellent academic educational system, communication infrastructure and extensive business know-how in the service industry,” he added.
LSP managing director Sharmini Krishnan said by mid-2018 the group’s Manila-based service center will grow to more than 440 staff members working in modern offices for one of Europe’s leading aviation groups.
“Additionally, we are also looking into providing comprehensive accounting services and other business process scope in the near future by recruiting highly skilled consultants catering to different demographics,” Krishnan said.
The German aviation group stated that 250 consultants will join LGBS and perform mainly financial accounting services while 190 customer service consultants will work with LIT and assist passengers flying Lufthansa and any other airline within the Group to book and rebook tickets, make reservations, and process baggage enquiries.
It added once the service center is built up to its full potential, most services will be provided on a 24-hour basis, 365 a day a year.
LIT and LGBS decided to set up a service center given the availability of highly skilled talent pool in the country.
“Adding a Manila-based service center to our portfolio contributes to the implementation of our overriding strategic goal,” LIT chief executive officer Erik Mosch said.
“The Service Delivery Center in Manila will play a key role in preparing ourselves for future growth,” LGBS senior vice president Astrid Hartmann said.
“We will be able to provide outstanding service and optimize our delivery costs; as a result we expect to expand our business portfolio and attract new customers,” she added.
At present, the Lufthansa Group has operations in the Philippines through Lufthansa Technik Philippines, a joint venture of Lufthansa Technik AG and MacroAsia Corp., offering a wide range of aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services to customers worldwide.