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• Airports Council International awarded level 3 of the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Costumer Experience accreditation to Costa Rica’s main air terminal.

September, 2023. The Airports Council International (ACI) recognized Juan Santamaría Airport with level 3 of the Costumer Experience accreditation; the international organization granted this certification thanks to the quality of the passenger travel experience.

By achieving level 3 of the Costumer Experience accreditation, ACI recognizes the commitment of the Juan Santamaría International Airport (AIJS) to improve the passenger travel experience. It is a distinction to the airport’s collaborators for providing passengers with a memorable experience.

“At Juan Santamaría International Airport we are committed to the PURA VIDA experience, we work for a pleasant transit for passengers. Good amenities, excellence in customer service and constant improvement are commitments we work on every day and are recognized with this certification,” said Ricardo Hernandez, executive director of AERIS.

This accreditation developed by ACI is part of its Airport Service Quality (ASQ) program, and is structured on specific goals and objectives that differentiate it from any other award in the area of customer satisfaction. There are five levels of accreditation, and airports are accredited and move up to the next level based on their compliance in eight practices:

• Customer Understanding
• Strategy
• Measurement
• Operational improvement
• Governance
• Airport culture
• Service design / innovation
• Airport community collaboration.

“Level 2 means that the airport is promoting a clear customer experience strategy, and consists of 31 specific requirements. To be considered at level 3, it implies that ACI assesses that the airport has already implemented an advanced customer experience strategy, increasing to 47 the requirements we had to meet,” Hernandez explained.

How was level 3 achieved? AERIS summarizes the achievement of this milestone in five reasons as provided by the ACI when granting the accreditation:

• Reinforcement of the SJO brand “Your Gateway to Pure Life Experience”.

In 2022, “Your Pura Vida Experience Gateway” was implemented, which aims to highlight that AIJS is the gateway to the pura vida experiences offered by the country and that passengers can experience from their passage through the terminal.

• Involvement of the airport community through workshops, training and the Excellence Program.

The Excellence Program aims to integrate and recognize the participation of AIJS commercial subcontractors in an annual program of excellence in the integral management of their business, focused on the three dimensions of sustainability. Its results are notorious, for example, in 2022, 45% of the subcontractors enrolled in the initiative carried out social impact activities in communities near the airport.

It also involves the involvement of public entities and airlines, which have actively participated in improving the passenger experience by supporting the identification and implementation of improvements in airport processes.

• Implementation of service methodology in projects.

Service Design is the methodology used to develop projects with the objective of generating solutions in accordance with the needs and expectations of customers. AERIS has begun to apply it in a project that seeks to streamline, reduce processing times and facilitate processes in general, through the placement of ramps before the x-ray machines.

• Employee training.

The airport community has shown great commitment to improving the AIJS customer experience. Therefore, a series of workshops and trainings have been developed with the collaborators of the different companies and entities that work at the airport, where the participants identify opportunities for improvement and pain points for specific steps of the passenger’s journey through the airport. To date, there have been 30 sessions with the participation of more than 300 employees.

• Strengthening the voice of the customer in the SJO community and more passenger data information.

One of the main tools is ACI’s ASQ survey, which is applied monthly in boarding lounges, and allows us to know the passenger’s perception of the airport’s services and facilities. The quarterly results of this survey are shared with the companies and entities that work at AIJS.

About AERIS Costa Rica

AERIS HOLDING COSTA RICA is a company of the CCR Group, which operates under the management model interested in the Juan Santamaría International Airport (AIJS), being in charge of its operation, maintenance, rehabilitation, construction, financing and promotion.

The company seeks to exceed the expectations of its stakeholder management contract in a transversal manner to sustainability, generating social, environmental and economic value. AERIS is committed to providing a “Pura Vida” travel experience for passengers transiting through the main gateway to the country and to generate positive impact to Costa Rica and its stakeholders.

AERIS draws on the experience of its parent companies: HAS Development Corporation and Grupo CCR of Brazil, the latter as the main shareholder and with stakes in the international airports of Quito Ecuador, Curacao and Belo Horizonte in Brazil.

It currently connects Costa Rica with 36 destinations around the world, through 25 international commercial airlines and two domestic airlines that operate in its facilities.