Ebookers.com Looks To India To Cut Dot-Com Costs

Ebookers on Monday said it would make the moves to India in an effort to lower costs. The travel agency is looking to break even around the end of this financial year. The Indian reorganization comprises outsourcing to Indian companies and shifting some of Ebookers' back-office operations to Delhi. From mid-July a call center service company in Bangalore will handle the European company's peak and overnight telephone service calls and answer e-mail. Ebookers says that call centers in London, Dublin and Paris will remain. Back and middle office infrastructure regarded as "non-core" - Web chat, service e-mail, accounting and data entry - will take place at a new Ebookers office in Delhi, the company said. Lastly, a third party IT services company in Pune will develop Ebookers software. Ebookers.com operates online travel services in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. The Internet travel agency last year announced plans to buy Flightbookers, the original travel agency from which it was created just under five years ago.