Air Operations Assistant

As the UK’s largest independent travel agency, Hays Travel specialises in providing good value, quality holidays alongside excellent customer service. We work with all leading suppliers and can package holidays that include hotels, flights, cruises, tours, attraction tickets, and more. We have over 470 Branches throughout the UK and our Head Office based in Sunderland, is home to tour operator teams, finance, marketing, people/HR and IT, plus many more. We have been operating for over 40 years, and continue to grow each year.

Our values

Our SMILE values are embedded in to our company and ensure our teams work strongly together. You and all of our colleagues will ensure that the Hays Travel values are demonstrated at all times.

• Supportive
• Motivational
• Innovative
• Loyal
• Excellence

What it’s like to work for us?

Whichever location or department you work in, our people are always at the heart of everything we do. We offer a range of training programmes to help you progress personally and professionally, as we know the benefits of promoting and rewarding our hardworking colleagues are extremely important.

Of course, it's not all about work. We're very sociable and there are always lots of team nights-out and company parties. Plus, there are opportunities to travel abroad on educational trips, and you can also take advantage of our colleague discount when booking your own holidays.

What we are looking for?

We are looking for an Air Operations Assistant to join our amazing and fast-paced Flights Department. Their main focus being providing a professional and expert service to the group for any scheduled flight query. In this role you will you will be part of a successful and friendly team who communicates any operations changes for schedule flights, work with the agents to ensure all queries are actioned efficiently and effectively within a GDS system.

What will be your key responsibilities?

• Communicate Schedule changes to our customers via a variety of methods

• Liaise with our agents to get the best alternative flight available

• Manage GDS queue

• Accurately calculate refunds and cancellation charges

• Process airline refunds accurately

• Issuing airline documents in accordance with terms and conditions

• Ensure our customers have a ‘one stop’ solution to their enquiry

• Dealing directly with the airlines if a problem arises to achieve a preferred outcome

• Provide exceptional customer service at all times

• Ensure the Customer Excellence process and procedures are followed

  What competencies we are looking for?

• Commitment to contribute to the growth of the business and the development of the team.

• Ensure that the Hays Travel values are demonstrated at all times and that others follow this standard

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Ability to liaise with staff at all levels

• Effective motivational skills and the ability to remain positive and professional at all times

• Ability to work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds

• Effective motivational skills and the ability to remain positive and professional at all times

• Attention to detail and high levels of accuracy

• Strong administration skills with excellent time management skills

 What experience we are looking for?

• Previous experience of working within a fast paced environment
• Worked within a Travel Sales environment
• Previous experience of working on Galileo GDS
• Previously worked within a customer service role
• Experience of working with airline contracts
• To be able to read and understand airline fare rules
• Previous experience of working with airline private fares
• Experience of working Galileo queues including the service queue, general queue, schedule change queue and cancelled/unconfirmed queue.
• Worked with airline commercial policy
• Experience of accurately calculating and processing refunds within the Galileo system, both full refund request and part flown
• Experience of accurately calculating and processing refunds within the BSP Link, both full refund request and part flown
• Experience of sourcing alternative flight options along with the ability to price using airline private fare commands
• Experience of manually building the fare when the system does not automatically calculate
• Experience of problem solving with a can do attitude
• Previously worked with the Travelport Rapid Reprice application
• Experience of reissuing an airline ticket
• Experience of re-validating an airline ticket
• Experience of refunding an EMD
• To be able to navigate around the IATA BSP Link website