Customer service operations of British Midland (bmi), a British airline company, will be outsourced to India under a five-year outsourcing agreement it has signed with the United Kingdom's contact centre management company Ventura.

Ventura, which is slated to provide a dedicated workforce of 250 agents to serve more than 200,000 customer enquiries per month for bmi, will be transferring the majority of this work to its centre at Pune.

"While 35 agents will continue to service bmi from Ventura's UK site, agents in Pune will provide essential support services such as application processing, payment processing, back office collections and data management," a company statement said.

bmi operates over 1,600 flights a week with a fleet of 42 jet aircraft serving 38 destinations in 15 countries. Its main operational base is at London Heathrow where it holds 12 per cent of all take off and landing slots. "We are very proud to be associated with bmi. The fact that bmi has decided to grant a five-year contract to Ventura clearly speaks of faith which it places in our service from the UK and India," Ventura country head Anupam Arun said in the statement.

Ventura has a workforce of more than 7,500 in the UK and India and provides on- and offshore service.