Northwest Airlines today announced plans to open a reservation call center in Sioux City that will create 200 to 300 new jobs. Sioux City Mayor Craig Berenstein says the Northwest call center will be a good fit with other recent business developments in the downtown business core.
Berenstein says the impact and importance of the announcement, "may be as significant as any development to occur in the downtown sector of our community."
Northwest vice president of reservations and sales, Perry Cannarudie, says the increased use of internet reservations hasn’t made call centers obsolete. Cannarudie says recent changes in purchasing behavior have drawn more people to the web and other self-service ways to make travel plans, but he says the reservation call center still has a significant need.
Northwest plans to invest four-point-eight million dollars to upgrade the building and says the call center should be up and running by the end of the year.