Photo courtesy of WestJet

With an eye to enhancing services for its French-speaking guests, WestJet has announced that it will open a new call centre in Moncton, New Brunswick later this year.

"We've always taken our responsibility to provide our signature friendly, caring and stress-free service in both of Canada's official languages seriously," said Gregg Saretsky, WestJet President and CEO. "A second call centre based in Canada's only officially bilingual province, in a city known as a centre of excellence for Business Services Centres, will allow us to provide additional hours of service for our French-speaking guests."

Scheduled to open in September, the new facility is expected to create more than 400 new jobs over four years, 2/3 of which will be full time. The total WestJet payroll in New Brunswick is expected to reach $34 million during the first six years of operation.

"We are pleased that WestJet has chosen New Brunswick to expand its east coast presence," said Premier Brian Gallant. "The number of jobs that are not tied to a physical location is growing rapidly across Canada. Our bilingual and highly skilled workforce has made New Brunswick a leader in the Business Services Centre industry and we are ideally positioned to capitalize on this growth."

To help fund the centre, Opportunities NB will contribute $1 million in forgivable loans and up to $2.5 million in payroll rebates with an anticipated $62 million return on investment. Once the centre is fully staffed and operational, the annual provincial GDP is expected to increase by $24 million.

Moncton became WestJet's first Atlantic Canada destination, when it launched service there in April 2000. In the last three years, the airline has doubled its departures from Moncton and increased seat capacity by 67 per cent.

During peak summer months, WestJet flies between Moncton and Toronto two times a day. The airline also offers non-stop flights weekly flights from Moncton to Cancun and Orlando during the winter months. In 2015, the airline launched added twice-daily service from Fredericton to Toronto, and increased frequency to three time a day earlier this year.

Job postings for bilingual call centre agents in Moncton should be posted on WestJet’s website very soon. Applicants may apply at www.westjet.com/greatjobs.

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