Mexican airline Volaris moves its customer service to bots

March 2026 — Volaris has moved most of its customer service out of the call center and into chat channels run largely by bots. Here's what launched, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of March 11, 2026)

Cost per interaction: 70% lower, Verint says. (Verint)
Bot share: 85% of digital interactions handled immediately by bots, Verint says; UC Today reports over 90%. (UC Today)
Project cost: not disclosed.

Why Volaris moved

The trigger was COVID, Daniel Gelemovich, Volaris's digital and marketing director, told UC Today. "As an airline, we sell flights up to 18 months in advance. When the pandemic hit, nearly all customers wanted to change their reservations at once," he said. Volaris set out a "call center zero" vision and moved service to digital channels. "Given our high and growing volume of customer interactions, controlling service costs was critical," he said in Verint's release.

The airline is not small. Verint's release says Volaris has grown since 2006 to 222 routes and 148 aircraft, with 500 daily flight segments.

Gelemovich said Volaris began working with Verint's digital arm "even before it was acquired."

What launched

According to Verint's July 22, 2025 release, Volaris moved its customer service "primarily" to messaging platforms and social media. Bots handle 85% of digital interactions immediately, including check-in. Human agents take the rest and can manage four to five conversations at once. Conversations can be paused, so customers don't get transferred or cut off.

Agents also get AI help. "What used to take 10 minutes—reading, translating, checking policies, drafting a reply—now takes seconds," Gelemovich told UC Today.

At Enterprise Connect on March 11, 2026, Volaris's senior manager of customer care, Iker Urionaguena Oraa, was listed to discuss how the airline moved more than 85% of its interactions to Verint's virtual assistant and added knowledge-management and co-pilot bots for live agents.

What Volaris and Verint say changed

Verint says the project cut cost per interaction by 70% and let Volaris handle three times the calls with the same number of agents. It says the bots also sell, helping customers build itineraries, find promotions and buy extras, so the unit "is sustained by the extra revenue it generates." "Today, the revenue generated by the project covers its operational costs," Gelemovich told UC Today.

"Our use of Verint bots to automatically respond to customer questions, complete tasks and drive sales has been a game changer," Gelemovich said in the release. Verint's chief marketing officer, Anna Convery, said Volaris "has realized tangible, meaningful value from its AI investments."

UC Today reported that containment grew from 50–60% at first to over 90%, and that the work helped Volaris win a 2023 Best Digital Airline award.

Complaints

Mexico's consumer agency still hears plenty about Volaris. In its summer 2025 operation, Profeco handled 596 cases involving Volaris, more than any other airline, El Imparcial reported. VivaAerobus had 314 and Aeroméxico 283. Across all cases, the top complaints were flight delays and missed flights; none of the listed categories involved the bots.

What went wrong

85% or 90%? Verint and the conference listing say 85%; UC Today says over 90%.
Which calls? Verint says Volaris tripled the calls it handles while moving service to chat. It doesn't define "calls."
What we don't know yet: the price of the system, how the 70% was measured, and what the 30% satisfaction gain in the release subhead compares against.

Our follow-up question for Volaris

What share of customer conversations end without a human, and how was the 70% cost cut measured?

Sources

Verint, “Volaris Achieves 70% Reduction in Cost Per Interaction and Handles 3x Call Volume in Contact Centers with Verint Bots,” July 22, 2025. verint.com
UC Today, Kristian McCann, “Exclusive: Mexico's Largest Airline Volaris Reveals How They Slashed Costs 70% with AI Chatbots,” Aug. 15, 2025. uctoday.com
Enterprise Connect 2026, “How Self-Service Leads to Contact Center Revenue” (session listing), March 11, 2026. schedule.enterpriseconnect.com
El Imparcial, Diyeth Arochi, “Operativo de Verano 2025 de Profeco concluye; lograron recuperar cifra millonaria a favor de consumidores,” Sept. 4, 2025. elimparcial.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder