Travel Operations Manager
About Us:
Sunwing Vacations Group is home to North America’s largest vacation brands, comprised of the leading Canadian leisure tour operators Sunwing Vacations and WestJet Vacations, along with the growing United States based tour operator Vacation Express, together with the Group’s own travel retail businesses SellOffVacations.com and Luxe Destination Weddings. Our culture is driven by our EPIC Values (entrepreneurial, passionate, innovative, and customer-centric) and our teams work together to deliver our purpose “passionate people making vacation dreams come true”.
The Opportunity:
The Travel Operations Manager is responsible for the planning, organization, and development of the Travel Operations team. The Travel Operations Manager is responsible for developing and implementing quality assurance practices that monitor applications and processes to identify gaps before they impact the customer experience. The Travel Operations Manager works closely with airline partners, as related to flight schedules, irregular operations, and services, ensuring the Travel Operations team communicates schedule updates, policies, and procedures accurately to the tour operating teams and with accuracy and immediacy. This role oversees employee performance, recruitment, and general departmental administration. The role will report to the Director of Operations
What You’ll Do:
- Manage a team of 8 to 10 people with a diverse array of talents and responsibilities.
- Developing, implementing, improving, and enforcing policies, and department controls to increase accuracy and efficiency.
- Guide employee’s development through regular one to one discussions and annual performance evaluations by defining personal aspirations, strengths, and sharing the department’s and company’s short- and long-term objectives.
- Oversee loading & management of all flight schedules and seat maps into the tour operator selling systems ensuring accuracy & timely input to stimulate advance sales.
- Day to day booking and modification management of alternate air seat distribution channels such as GDS (Sabre, Amadeus & Travelport).
- Track task completion progress for the team, reallocating resources as needed to meet established deadlines.
- Create and monitor reports for qualify assurance. Action resolution, process reviews and coaching as needed.
- Responsible for the operationalization of new programs and products by identifying the impact & needs of same for other areas of the business.
- Support system business applications “owned” by the Operations team.
- Represents Operations in the successful participation, implementation, documentation & training on special projects as assigned. Delegation of tasks to Operations team to support special projects as needed.
- Participate and provide direction to team for actions as related to system upgrades, testing (including development & maintenance of required testing scripts).
- Consult and collaborate with other departments determining best practices/procedures.
- Oversee the standard of care and welfare of customers during IROPS by confirming appropriate compensation (i.e. meal vouchers, accommodation) & on-going communication internally & externally via Flight Alerts and Flight Status (website) is being provided.
- Review customer feedback to identify trends and implement processes to improve customer experience during IROPS.
- Other duties as assigned.
What You’ll Need
- A minimum of 3-5 years of experience managing a team of people in the travel/tour operator industry
- Self-motivated with effective time management skills, able to manage multiple tasks and a varied workload.
- Experience with process management and comfortable with a variety of systems.
- Strong computer skills including Word, Excel, and Outlook.
- Must have fundamental knowledge of the Airline Passenger Protection Regulation (APPR) and the potential impact to the company around fight scheduled changes and flight cancelations.
- Must be able to thrive in a fast changing and high paced environment.
- Highly effective written and oral communication skills.
- Demonstrates initiative and commercial awareness.
- Must be flexible and adaptable to support a team that operates 24/7, 365 days.
What We Offer:
- Hybrid Work Opportunities
- Great travel perks!
- Goodlife Corporate Discount
- Comprehensive benefits package
- RRSP Matching Program
- Growth opportunities
- Free Parking
- Open concept, collaborative workspace
- Fresh Café with delicious snacks and meals at a subsidized price!
- Opportunity to give back through our social responsibility initiatives
- See for yourself! @sunwinglife
Other details
- Pay Type Salary
- 27 Fasken Dr, Etobicoke, ON M9W 1K6, Canada