Customer experience milestone for Seychelles gateway

Seychelles International Airport (SEZ) has officially achieved Level 1 status in ACI’s Airport Customer Experience Accreditation programme.

The achievement comes two years after the introduction of the Seychelles Electronic Border System as well as upgrades to the airport infrastructure and facilities, which are ongoing.

The ACI Airport Customer Experience Accreditation is the first and only programme in the airport industry which guides the airport ecosystem in becoming customer-centric and ultimately improving overall airport experience.

The objective of the accreditation is to help airports improve their practices, promote a direct positive impact on customer satisfaction and to assist airports to meet evolving customer expectations.

For SEZ, the recognition reaffirms its efforts to elevate the experience of its customers.

“The airport is the backbone of the tourism industry, and it is the point where guests formulates their impressions of our islands,” notes SEZ.

The Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA), notes that the gateway’s importance makes it imperative that the airport and its stakeholders know their customers and are able to give them what they need to “create joyful moments”.

SCAA CEO, Garry Albert, said: “We have put a lot of focus on customer experience within the airport community to instill a customer centric culture in the way we do business. This accreditation is a direct result of the hard work of the entire airport community and not just SCAA.

“We are proud of all the efforts made thus far and we have a lot more to do, to uphold and elevate our standards, it truly takes a village to realise such an accomplishment.”

In congratulating SCAA for the achievement, ACI World director general, Luis Filipe de Olivieira, said “We congratulate you for achieving this status within this programme and we look forward to enabling you to reach further achievements in airport customer experience management.”

To prepare for the Accreditation, SCAA had to partake in ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Survey during the first quarter of 2023. This allowed for the country to benchmark services at the International Airport with others in the region and globally.

The results highlighted that Seychelles International Airport ranked remarkably well in terms of courtesy and helpfulness of airport staff, including information and maintenance staff.

According to technology company Travizory Border Security, the impressive score from the survey is a direct result of efforts to improve airport facilities as well as continuous steps to train and empower airport employees through the Lospitalite programme.

Importantly, the introduction of the Seychelles Electronic Border System (SEBS), which resulted in the rapid processing of passengers has also contributed to the excellent overall score and the recognition.

Renaud Irminger, CEO of Travizory Border Security, said: “With the launch of the Seychelles Electronic Border System, Seychelles now has one of the most advanced Border Security Systems in the world and achievements such as this Level 1 Accreditation are testament to the hard work that has gone into the project over the past three years.

“Seychelles International Airport is the first in Africa to introduce walk-through biometrics and passenger clearing times have drastically reduced as a result. Travizory is extremely proud to have contributed to this milestone and we look forward to continuing on this journey with our Government partner.”

The accreditation programme has a total of five levels and to date there are only two airports globally who have achieved level five accreditation, one being the Incheon International Airport, South Korea, and the other being Quito International Airport in Ecuador.