The boss of Scenic Group has pledged to get service levels “back to normal soon” and apologised to customers for the “recent challenges” they had faced.
In a letter to customers on Monday (July 25), executive chairman Glen Moroney admitted issues started when the firm, which operates Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours and Emerald Cruises, was “cyber-attacked” in February 2022.
He said the last five months had been his “most stressful” in the Scenic Group’s 36-year history.
“We’ve been dealing with a huge backlog, whilst trying to employ additional staff to cope with the return to full operations with the added challenge of Covid-related absenteeism,” he wrote.
Moroney also highlighted the impact of “unprecedented” levels of flight rescheduling which added “a significant volume of urgent calls to the customer contact centre”.
As part of efforts to improve service levels, Moroney outlined how the firm had restructured its IT department with “a stronger focus on security and recovery protocols” and employed additional reservations staff globally.
A dedicated support team has been set up to handle administrative tasks for each booking so the contact team can be “more efficient”, he added.
Moroney stressed that pre-departure documentation was “nearing pre-cyber event timing”, adding that average wait times for the customer contact centre had “improved dramatically”.
But he added: “We still have occasional blow outs when we get numerous flight schedule changes or large numbers of staff on sick leave.
“For example, one office recently had 183 flight reschedules in one day, at a time when 13 staff members were on sick leave due to either the flu or Covid.”
He went on to say: “We as always are totally committed to overcoming these latest challenges, as we have done so over the many years.
“Once again I apologise for the inconvenience we’ve caused and assure you we will soon be back to normal.”