Arajet scales customer and employee service with Zendesk AI

Growth creates pressure—but it also reveals what matters. For Arajet, that means making sure customers can easily reach the airline and get a clear answer when they need one. Arajet entered the aviation market with the clear purpose of transforming connectivity across the Americas through an affordable fare model. Based in the Dominican Republic, the company sees itself not simply as a carrier, but as an experience enabler that places passengers at the center of every strategic decision.

Carlos Mesa, Vice President of Customer Experience at Arajet, brings 24 years of experience in the airline industry. At Arajet, his role is to ensure service goes beyond basic support. His team focuses on giving customers not only strong service, but also solutions that align with their expectations, even when travel becomes more complicated. The team operates with the understanding that efficiency and quality must coexist to maintain long-term loyalty.

Arajet’s organizational culture emphasizes the importance of well-defined processes supported by robust tools. This mindset set the stage for a major digital transformation in how the company manages communications across the Caribbean and beyond.

As the business expanded, so did the variety of customer needs, languages, routes, and contact channels. Arajet was no longer managing only complaints or claims. It was supporting passengers through chat, email, phone, social channels, web forms, and travel agency relationships—all while serving a growing international customer base.

For Arajet, technology is not the story by itself. It is the means to deliver a broader promise of responsive, human-centered service at scale.

Unifying service at scale

Arajet’s rapid growth brought operational challenges that required a solution capable of centralizing communications and eliminating information silos. Arajet initially started with Zendesk as a simple ticketing solution, used primarily by the technology team before later expanding into customer service.

At the time, the airline did not yet know the level of contact volume it would eventually face. As a result, service tools evolved in pieces. Bots and telephone support operated outside Zendesk. Other systems connected through APIs and interfaces, and customer context was scattered across channels. Mesa candidly described the results as “a little Frankenstein-ish.”

That fragmented setup became harder to maintain as volumes increased. Systems could no longer manage operations effectively in a single environment, and teams had to move between tools to piece together the customer story.

The company also recognized that employee experience was just as critical as external customer experience in keeping operations running smoothly. HR processes and other internal support teams needed a service structure that offered the same seamless experience provided to passengers. Without a unified platform, employees often struggled with manual requests, creating bottlenecks that could eventually impact customer service.

Rather than assuming the answer was already in place, Arajet explored the broader market. What brought the airline back to Zendesk was the sense that the platform had evolved into a more complete solution. Mesa said the team found the partner they needed to continue evolving because Zendesk could provide “that all-in-one approach under a single methodology” and help them understand the customer through a 360-degree view.

One ecosystem, one connected service experience

Choosing Zendesk as a strategic partner allowed Arajet to implement a platform that acts as the command center for all interactions. By unifying channels, the company successfully created a continuous flow of information where every request is automatically routed to the right owner. This integration eliminated friction between departments and ensured data was always available where it was needed most.

“Zendesk is a channel that helps route information to the right process and the right owner, whether the request comes from a passenger, a travel agency, or an employee,” Mesa explains.

This versatility allowed the solution to grow organically within the company, moving beyond traditional customer support into a true internal service provider.

Another major advancement was WhatsApp calling. Arajet joined an early lab effort to integrate WhatsApp Calls into Zendesk, and the use case became immediately clear. Customers often preferred to be contacted through WhatsApp while traveling.

“Today, WhatsApp represents 25 percent to 30 percent of our incoming calls,” Mesa explains.

That shift also expanded accessibility and, in the travel business, removing barriers matters.

Arajet later added Zendesk AI tools, including AI Agents for chat, Copilot for agent assistance, quality assurance capabilities, and omnichannel routing.

“The Copilot tool has been fundamental for us,” Mesa says.

The airline also used AI-powered translation to support customers in French and Portuguese, helping Spanish-speaking agents assist travelers when native-language coverage was unavailable around the clock.

Beyond simple automation, Zendesk AI enabled Arajet to scale its experience without increasing pressure on staff. By deploying AI Agents to handle routine inquiries, the airline ensured customers received instant, accurate responses at any time of day.

This intelligent layer acts as a first line of support that understands intent and sentiment, allowing human agents to focus their energy on more complex travel situations where empathy and creative problem-solving matter most.

Results measured with speed, insight, and efficiency

The pace of implementation surprised even the Arajet team. After expanding the agreement, the airline had already migrated its chat operations to AI in approximately 30 days. The broader package, including Copilot and QA, was implemented within three months. For a live airline operation, Mesa described the initial migration as “open-heart surgery”—yet the transition was seamless for customers.

The operational impact came quickly. Arajet agents now resolve 60 percent more tickets. The airline also reduced cost per interaction by 40 percent while handling higher volumes with the same staffing levels. Passenger volume grew nearly 40 percent to 50 percent year over year, yet customer service costs remained stable, demonstrating the scalability of the new model.

AI-powered QA has become one of the most valuable parts of the setup. Arajet now reviews 100 percent of interactions through AI, giving teams real-time data on pain points, sentiment, and opportunities for improvement.

Mesa described those insights as “very powerful” because they help the airline determine what to fix, what to mitigate, and where to automate next to stay ahead of customer expectations.

The impact has also reached the customer experience itself. Chat represents between 40 percent and 50 percent of Arajet’s contact volume, and AI now resolves 70 percent of those interactions without escalating them to an agent.

The solution’s impact extended deeply across the organization, positively influencing internal service workflows. What began within the technology department expanded into customer experience and now shapes how HR, IT, and other teams manage requests. Arajet ensured employees could get answers to their own questions just as quickly as passengers.

This integrated approach guarantees Arajet’s service culture remains consistent across every touchpoint, strengthening the brand from the inside out and creating a more engaged workforce.

A partnership built for what’s next

For Arajet, the value of Zendesk goes beyond software. It extends to how the relationship has worked in practice.

“Zendesk never leaves us out in the cold,” Mesa says.

He pointed to the support from sales teams, customer experience teams, technical experts, and international teams that helped the airline improve configurations, refine workflows, and move faster with confidence.

The next step is already in sight. Arajet is exploring AI-powered voice experiences to create a more dynamic alternative to traditional IVR menus. For Mesa, that is a natural extension of the airline’s service philosophy: making support easier to access, easier to understand, and easier to resolve.

Arajet’s story with Zendesk is about building a strong foundation for the future, ensuring technology keeps pace with the company’s ambition.

“Their priority is making support easier to access and faster to resolve,” Mesa concludes.

With the intelligence of the platform, the airline is ready to continue democratizing air travel while maintaining a standard of service excellence that spans every department.

As the airline continues to scale, Zendesk does not position itself as the hero—Arajet is the star. And Zendesk is the partner helping the airline keep service connected, intelligent, and ready for what comes next in the evolving world of aviation.