The unified call center which was launched by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) received more than (58,692) calls and inquiries from the traveling public during the first half of the year (2016) through the toll free phone number project at 800-116-8888. The General Authority of Civil Aviation in its effort to expand the communication channels with its customers and to achieve the ultimate satisfaction with the services provided and to provide needed information, while providing its clients with required information around the clock according to the highest quality of standard. The toll free number offers customer's inquiries into flight schedules and the ability to talk with the customer's service staff and lodge complaints, or offer suggestions and general inquires services. The call centers are up and running in each of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Fahad International Airport in Dammam, King Abudlaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the Executive office, Consumer Protection Office, Safety and Security, Air Transport and GACA's Office. Work is underway to establish calling centers in all of the domestic airports around the Kingdom, twenty-three in total. King Abdulaziz International Airport lead the way with the number of inquiries received to the toll free number with (36221) through the first half of this year, followed by King Fahad International Airport with (1175) calls. King Khalid International Airport received (178) calls, the Executive Office received (18669), followed by Consumer Protection (1420), and then Safety and Air Transport (456) and GACA office received (573) calls. The General Authority of Civil Aviation, in accordance with the instructions of its President Suliman Alhamdan, has established the unified call center in three stages, the first stage which was King Abdulaziz International Airport. In the second stage, the Executive office was added and on its third stage, King Khalid International Airport, King Fahad International Airport, consumer protection, safety and security and air transport were added. Currently work is underway to complete the fourth and final stage by adding all the domestic airports. The established call center have set the highest quality of standards where answering a phone calls doesn't exceed twenty seconds and the average response time is no more than thirty seconds, where the call time amount to four minutes and post call time amount to six minutes. The centers are staffed by well-trained highly qualified Saudi work force. The call center also employ the best techniques available in answering customer's inquiries, in addition to recording it and establish of a panel to monitor incoming calling and the response speed and follow the daily reports on the development of the project and effort to increase the number of calls. Also work is ongoing to monitor staff performance and follow-up on customer rating post any given call. It's worth mentioning that the call center at the General Authority of Civil Aviation has recently won the best government call center award from INSIGHTS, a specialized organization which evaluates professional services in the Middle East and have a track record of 13 years in the region in the field of call center services.
