When Skywings Journey brings collectively enterprise companions and constant prospects for an occasion it plans to have a good time its 30th anniversary, nobody can be prouder than founder Balasubramaniam Pathmabaskaran. He moved from Sri Lanka to London in 1975, earlier than the brutal civil conflict that tore his homeland aside between 1983 and 2009. After gaining expertise as a journey agent, he determined to arrange his personal company in 1994, and lots of of his first purchasers They have been fellow Sri Lankans returning house to go to family and friends.
Pathmabaskaran continued to steer the corporate till he retired in 2017, when Sai Pathmanathan took over as CEO, supported by co-director Daybreak Auwardt Mugunthan and Aruna Jayathilake, head of gross sales. Since these early days, specializing in flights to Sri Lanka, the enterprise has diversified. There may be now extra deal with bundle holidays and tailored excursions, because of sturdy relationships with floor handlers in Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives and the Far East, with Bangkok being the main vacation spot.
“It's been a rollercoaster,” says Jayathilake. “We now have weathered numerous exterior components which have influenced our enterprise, from bomb blasts in Sri Lanka to the pandemic. However we have now all the time stored our nerve and we have now recovered strongly.”
Skywings has stored its primary company in Tooting, apparently catering for these older prospects preferring the private contact. However to draw extra digitally savvy generations, the corporate has made large investments in expertise over time, fueling Skyscanner and Google Flights, with ongoing efforts to finalize the mixing into Kayak.
“Some could argue that meta search engines like google pose a menace to conventional companies. “We now have a distinct perspective: embracing metasearch is the way in which ahead within the altering journey panorama.”
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Jayathilake admits it's not straightforward to compete with airways within the e-commerce house, however says that even when prospects are interested in an airline's decrease direct fare, “they often come again to us, as a result of it's a nightmare making an attempt to speak to an airline.” by telephone”.
The enterprise has additionally expanded with the addition of name centres, first in New Delhi in 2019 after which in Colombo, in 2022, growing its international workforce to 50. The event means telephones might be manned seven days every week. of the week. “We now have expanded our attain and supply seamless service to prospects the world over,” provides Jayathilake.