India’s first ever Passenger Satisfaction Survey conducted at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport

The finding of the first of its kind survey conducted at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai were released by the Research Team of L.N.Welingkar Institute of Management (WE School) in May 2016 at Mumbai Customs House.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) engaged a WE School to conduct a survey of Passenger Satisfaction levels of customs clearance process at the Mumbai International Airport.

The scope of the Survey was to assess Passenger Satisfaction levels with the Customs Clearance Process, focusing on three aspects. Those three aspects were Information, Behaviour and Process.

A research team comprising of faculty members and research associates of WE School conducted the survey over a week on 24x7 basis in May 2016.

Key findings of the survey:

• Overall Satisfaction level at Mumbai Airport 

The passengers were asked to rate their experience of Mumbai Customs vis-a- vis other international Airports across the world.

69% rated their experience with Mumbai airport customs as better as or somewhat better than other international airports.

15% rated on par.

About 16% felt that it was worse .

• Respondents appreciated the improvements in customs clearance process over the years. 35% of the respondents mentioned that clearance process has drastically improved while 37% mentioned that there is marginal improvement.

• Three areas where major improvement is expected by passengers are: (a)Access and availability of information, (b) Speed of process and (c) Greater transparency of duty assessment process.

• Customs assessment for TV and jewellery appeared to be less widely known and are two commodities causing maximum discord.

• The manner of payment of assessed duty amount at the designated bank’s counter (SBI) and lack of alternative facility to pay duty by Debit/Credit card/ Cash Card & Foreign exchange rate differential vis-à- vis others exchange operators was another cause of Passenger dissatisfaction.

• The study found that lack of information awareness has a direct bearing on passenger satisfaction levels.

• Only 27% were Fully Aware of the Indian customs rules and regulations while the vast majority was either partly aware or unaware of the legal requirements. Only 17% of the passengers were found to be accessing Indian Customs website for information, while the rest relied on various other sources, which may not be fully authentic and reliable.

• 43% of the passengers preferred medium of mobile phone for seeking information. Only 50% of passengers were aware that the Baggage Declaration Forms had been withdrawn, which was a major simplification undertaken recently, with 68% welcoming the move as a positive initiative.

• The study has identified specific actions to address the information awareness gaps, prominent among them being Web promotion and optimisation, mobile App based information dissemination and increased use of social media.

• 77% of the passengers stated that they did not face any difficulty or harassment.

• The study revealed that passengers are sensitive to the time they spend on the entire Customs Clearance Process.

• In the case of Green Channel passengers, threshold time is up to 15 minutes while in the case of Red Channel Passengers, threshold time appeared to creep in the 15 to 29 minutes time interval.

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