bmi launches contact centre operations in Pune

bmi has opened its customer services operations at Ventura's new contact
centre in Pune, India.

During the five-year contract, Ventura will provide a dedicated
workforce of 250 agents serving more than 200,000 customer enquiries per
month.

The company said 35 agents will continue to service bmi from Ventura's
UK site and the agents in Pune will provide essential support services
such as application processing, payment processing, back office
collections and data management.

On decision to move to Pune, Sanjay Parmar, manager - call centre, Bmi
said that airline wanted to find a company that would reflect emphasis
on placing the customer first. bmi, which carries over six and a half
million passengers annually and operates over 1600 flights a week, said
the move brings employment opportunities in Pune.

bmi has also launched a new service to Mumbai from London Heathrow in
May 2005, after UK and India reached new bilateral air service
agreement.

Ventura is one of the UK's leading contact centre management companies
and is a subsidiary of Next plc.  Ventura has a workforce of more than
7500 people in the UK and India.  UK sites are in Leeds, Cardiff and the
Dearne Valley, Rotherham.

"The fact that bmi has decided to grant a five years contract to Ventura
clearly speaks of faith which bmi places in our service from the UK and
India," said Ventura's country head Anupam Arun. The company  said that
the move also reiterates Ventura's on and offshore combined approach.