Thousands of calls from business travellers facing disruption caused by severe winter weather have been handled by Hogg Robinson Group.
The travel management company implemented a crisis management policy on January 17 in response to heavy snowfall, which threatened major disruption for travellers.
The company was able to draw upon resources throughout its UK network to boost the team fielding calls and offering advice to clients via a 24-hour emergency telephone number.
Calls soared by 300% following the decision by Heathrow to cut capacity by 20% last Saturday.
Further disruption at Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Eurostar, Paris CDG, Brussels and Amsterdam on Sunday caused call volumes to surge by 850%.
Many additional staff fielded thousands of calls between 5pm on Friday and 8am on Monday, offering advice to stranded travellers and re-arranging bookings.
HRG is prepared for the effects of further winter weather over the coming weeks. It is continuing to operate its crisis management plan, monitoring both the external situation and the deployment of internal resources to help manage further disruption.
Managing director Europe North Ian Windsor said: “Disruptions like the ones we saw last week have become something of a regular occurrence over the past few years as extreme weather conditions hit the UK and Europe.
“HRG’s robust crisis management policy enables us to adapt quickly to exactly this type of rapidly developing situation.
“Our absolute focus is to minimise any inconvenience that clients and travellers may experience. Where there’s a solution, we’ll find it.”