Jet2 (Jet2.com and Jet2 Holidays) today announced its aggressive growth plans in India at the launch of Jet2 Travel Technologies (Jet2TT), its global software development & innovation centre in Pune. J2TT plans to build and nurture a strong technology workforce of over 150 professionals in the coming 18 months to build world-class travel software solutions. The company will also hire fresh talent from various colleges across Pune through graduate schemes and internship programs. The state-of-the-art 16,000 sq. ft. space would operate in a Virtual Captive Centre (VCC) model, which would be powered by Pune based Dataction Analytics.
Confirming the India growth story of J2TT Mr. Gary Isaacs, Chief Information Officer, Jet2 said, “We conducted a thorough research across major cities in India and narrowed down to Pune as our ideal choice to launch the VCC for multiple strategic reasons. Pune already has an extremely large pool of quality IT professionals along with a sound education ecosystem which consistently generates fresh technology talent every year. Furthermore, Pune is rapidly becoming the model ‘Smart City’ of India with the government making significant investments across infrastructure projects such as Metro, National Highways and the International Airport. It also helps that Pune has been ranked No. 1 city in the country in ‘ease of living’ index 2018 released by the ministry of housing and urban affairs. We believe that Pune would become one of the most ideal places to work in India in the near future.”
The VCC in Pune is primarily setup to support Jet2’s continued rapid growth. Mr. Gary Brown, Executive Director and Group Chief Financial Officer – Dart Group (Parent company of Jet2.com & Jet2 Holidays) said, “Jet2 has always been dedicated to giving its customers memorable holiday experiences by offering great products and excellent customer service at affordable prices. Our company’s revenue has almost tripled since 2015, from £1.25 billion to £3.14 billion in 2019, while maintaining a very impressive profit growth, profitability having grown from £40 million to £177m in the same period. We believe our IT team has been a solid pillar of this growth story and will continue to be so in the future. That is why we have decided to ramp up our technology team here in Pune which would aptly support our technology teams in Leeds and Sheffield (UK).”
Going forward, Jet2 would also be setting up an innovation centre in Pune, which would look at closely working with technology startups in India to develop travel based technology solutions. Mr. Isaacs further added, “Our eventual goal is to make significant investments in building a strong technology workforce across development, testing, architecture and business intelligence & analytics. We believe the talent pool in Pune is at par with the global standards and is well capable of innovating and delivering world-class travel based solutions for a global audience. J2TT would also be looking at closely working with likeminded technology startups here in India, which would further boost employment.”
Jet2 has seen a sustained and impressive growth since 2015 and plans to continue to grow in the coming years. Therefore, the IT delivery centre in Pune, Jet2TT will play a vital part in supporting this business growth. Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Saurabh Limaye, Managing Director, Jet2TT said, “Along with delivering high quality software for Jet2, Jet2TT also aims at creating innovative software that will further enhance the experience for Jet2 customers and enhance the internal business processes to achieve bigger milestones in the near future. Jet2TT offers an opportunity for Indian colleagues to work alongside our UK colleagues that would give some unique international exposure and help them progress in their careers. Learning and development is an integral part of the IT strategy and as such J2TT will offer various trainings, hand’s on exposure to cutting edge technologies and certifications to our employees to help them up-skill to stay relevant in this competitive market.”
Jet2TT will generate employment for the IT segment in the Pune market over the course of time, therefore giving an opportunity to job seekers to work with a world renowned brand.
