Customer experiences of Fintraffic’s air navigation services receive high scores in the latest survey
To support the continuous development of its operations, Fintraffic Air Navigation Services carries out an annual customer satisfaction survey to gather customer experiences and service quality evaluations from those who use the services on a daily basis. What does the survey measure? In which areas did Air Navigation Services do particularly well in 2022, and which areas need further improvement?
Fintraffic Air Navigation Services carried out its annual customer satisfaction survey for the fifth time in 2022. The survey was targeted at those who use the air navigation services on a daily basis, such as pilots, airline operators, flight schools and airport operators.
Traditionally, the survey’s largest group of respondents has been airline pilots. This year, Fintraffic cooperated with the Finnish Pilots’ Association to reach as many pilot representatives as possible with the survey. However, the number of respondents was slightly lower than before. This was partly due to the decline in the number of airlines operating in Finnish airspace as a result of last year’s flight ban on Russian airspace.
“Despite the current situation, a good survey response rate was achieved overall, and this year’s largest group of respondents was once again airline transport pilots. It was also positive to see the increased diversity of the survey participants in terms of the responses received from flight schools and general aviation operators,” says Pasi Nikama, Senior Vice President at Fintraffic Air Navigation Services.
Excellent experiences of customer support and the implementation of safety standards
The survey participants were asked to evaluate the success of air navigation services on a scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). The respondents also had the opportunity to provide open feedback in the survey.
The survey results were largely similar to those of the 2021 survey, and generally the differences were some tenths of a percentage point. The respondents rated their general experiences of cooperation with Fintraffic Air Navigation Services and of the use of its services high: the average score of the responses this year was 3.9/5, which was slightly higher than the year before (2021: 3.8/5).
“The results of the customer satisfaction survey were good, especially with respect to the pleasantness of customer support and customer experiences, which both received an average score of 4.4. The customers also rated their experience of the implementation of safety standards high, with the average score of the responses being 4.5,” says Kimmo Lehtimäki, Key Account Manager at Fintraffic Air Navigation Services.
In the opinion of Nikama and Lehtimäki, these positive results indicate that Air Navigation Services has performed its special task of ensuring the safety and punctuality of air traffic in Finland successfully and with a high level of quality.
“The scores for air traffic control and, above all, for the air navigation services of regional airports were excellent. The average score of the responses for regional airports this year was 4.3, compared to last year’s 4.0. This is also an indication of the high level of the network of air navigation services we have in place,” says Lehtimäki.
The respondents have different views on the areas for improvement
In addition to indicating the successful areas of air navigation services, the customer satisfaction survey plays an important role in the improvement of the services. The responses serve as a basis for identifying any development needs so that the air navigation services can be improved even further.
In this year’s survey responses, there were differences of opinion among the respondents about which areas need further improvement. For example, environmental friendliness and better enabling the use of the ‘glide’ approach to landing were raised as areas for improvement with respect to the pilots’ experiences of cooperation. In the pilots’ opinion, airspace management and air traffic flow management needed improvement, whereas the pilots’ experiences of air traffic control were excellent and even better compared to the previous survey.
“The differences of opinion in the responses show us that we need to work on how we communicate about our operations to our customers. We seek better understanding of why our customers feel that, for example, we have failed to manage the airspace efficiently or failed to enable the use of the ‘glide’ approach to landing when Finland is one of the leading countries in Europe in these areas. By getting to the root of the problem, we can determine where our efforts should go and in which areas we could improve our performance even further,” says Nikama.
