FIELDWORK GUIDE AND SCHEDULES

v.2015-06-16

FIELDWORK GUIDE AND SCHEDULES

© 2015 ACI

ASQ 2015 Main Survey

Fieldwork Guide and Schedules – ASQ Main Programme 2015© 2015 ACI 2

Fieldwork GuidelinesTable of Content

• General Overview p.3

• Fieldwork agent – Profile p.4

• Sample Plan – Rules & Guidelines p.5

• Sample Plan – Quality Control p.7

• Fieldwork – Rules & Guidelines p.13

• Fieldwork Best Practices: Random Selection of Passengers at the Gate p.14

• Questionnaire Management p.23

• Instructions for Fieldwork Staff: How to check the questionnaire completion p.24

• Fieldwork – Quality Control p.27

• Distribution of Sample Plan and Blank Questionnaires p.29

• Deadlines for Return of Completed Questionnaires to ACI p.30

• Return Address for Completed Questionnaires p.31

• Submission of Results and Reports to the Airports p.32

Fieldwork Guide and Schedules – ASQ Main Programme 2015

Fieldwork GuidelinesGeneral Overview

© 2015 ACI 3

• The schedule, location, and details of the fieldwork shall be kept confidential, in order to ensure that behavioral bias from airport staff is not introduced.

• The fieldwork is based on a sample plan issued by ACI’s Authorized Subcontractor and sent quarterly to all airports at least one month before the beginning of the field (cf. schedule p.29).

o The sample plan is based on OAG Direct flights data. The number of questionnaires that need to be collected will be representative of the traffic at the airport during the quarter:

o Representative of all theoretical number of seats for each pair “carrier-destination”

o Representative of the traffic type, when applicable, Domestic, International, Charters or Transborders.

• Paper questionnaires are sent by ACI’s Authorized Subcontractor to the participating airports before the beginning of the quarter and are available in 35 languages.

• The minimum number of completed questionnaires per quarter is 350.

• The quarterly sample plan is uploaded to the Sample Plan Management Tool. The airport shall advice ACI’s Authorized Subcontractor if they are anticipating some changes/cancellations.

• The fieldwork manager is responsible to select the flights that will be surveyed based of the fieldwork rules to comply with the sample plan.


Fieldwork GuidelinesFieldwork agent - Profile

© 2015 ACI 4

• The questionnaire shall be self-completed by the passenger at the gate before boarding, it is not an interview.

• Fieldwork agents shall be fluent in the main local language.

• Fieldwork agents shall have upper-intermediate knowledge of English.

• Fieldwork agents shall have previous experience in questionnaire collection and management.

• Fieldwork agents shall have outstanding communication skills.

• Fieldwork agents shall follow smart casual dress code or be wearing the Participating Airport’s uniform.

• Fieldwork agents shall carry a visible airport identification card.


Fieldwork GuidelinesSample Plan – Rules & Guidelines

© 2015 ACI 5

• The fieldwork shall be distributed evenly over all three months of a given quarter, with a minimum of two days of fieldwork per month, for a minimum of seven days for the whole quarter

• Every day of the week (from Monday to Sunday) shall be surveyed.

• The fieldwork shall cover all operating hours of the airport.

• The number of questionnaires collected at the boarding area for each selected flight shall be a equal or less than 10 questionnaires. o When the theoretical sample size for a pair airline/destination require more than 10 interviews, airports

should plan multiple visits at this gate during the quarter to collect maximum 10 questionnaires:

Original Sample Plan

- Q1/15 -

Airline

CA

De

stin

atio

n AKL AKL AKL

CAN 17 2 gate visits to be planned in Q1/15

HKG HKG HKG

PVG 27 3 gate visits to be planned in Q1/15

SIN SIN SIN


Fieldwork GuidelinesSample Plan – Rules & Guidelines

© 2015 ACI 6

• Recommended Practice: In cases where the number of questionnaires per “airline-destination” combination is less than 4, these questionnaires can be allocated to other “airline-destination” combinations. Airports following this Recommended Practice shall:

o Allocate these questionnaires to other airlines flying to the same destination or to the same airline flying to other destinations;

o Rotate these combinations during subsequent quarters, in order to maximize the annual representation of the real sample when compared to the theoretical Sample Plan.

• The completion rate of the collected sample of “airline-destination” pairs shall be over 85% of the theoretical sample plan for each quarter.

Original Sample Plan Targeted Sample Plan

- Q1/15 – - Q1/15 - - Q2/15 -

Airline Airline Airline

CA CA CA

De

stin

atio

n AKL AKL AKL

CAN 3 CAN 4 CAN 0

HKG HKG HKG

PVG 1 PVG 0 PVG 4

SIN SIN SIN


• The completion rate of the collected sample of “airline-destination” pairs shall be over 85% of the theoretical sample plan for each quarter:

o For Quality Control purposes and to ensure Airports’ Compliance with the Theoretical Sample Plan, the Completion Rate of the “airline-destination” combinations will be calculated by dividing the actual number of the Completed questionnaires by the Theoretical number of questionnaires from the Sample Plan.

o Completion Rates for each “airline-destination” combination and “airline-destination” totals shall be equal or greater than 85% per quarter with the exception of the combinations and totals with less than 4 questionnaires.

o If a Participating Airport fails to fulfill this requirement without any valid reason (flight/destination cancelled…), this airport will not be included in the official rankings for that quarter, nor in the official “year-to-date” rankings for that year. In addition, this Airport will not be eligible for an annual Award.

o Assessment of the Completion Rate of an Airport will be shared with other Participating Airports at the end of each quarter.

Fieldwork GuidelinesSample Plan – Quality Control


Calculation of the 85% Completion Rate :


Original Sample Plan Actual Completed Questionnaires Completion Rates

Airlines Airlines Airlines

Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total

AAR 0 14 0 14 AAR 15 15 AAR na 107% na 107% OK

ADB 2 0 1 3 ADB 2 1 3 ADB na na na na OK

AGP 3 8 0 11 AGP 3 7 10 AGP na 88% na 91% OK

AMS 1 2 0 3 AMS 1 2 3 AMS na na na na OK

BGY 0 8 7 15 BGY 6 9 15 BGY na 75% 129% 100% OK

Total 6 32 8 46 Total 6 30 10 46 Total 100% 94% 125% 100% OK

OK OK OK

Case 1. This airport is not systematically grouping to 4 questionnaires, and the targeted sample plan is the same than the original one.

Completion rates are not calculated when the Original Sample Size is less than 4 questionnaires.

Even though the completion rate of the pair FR-BGY is less than 85% (75%), the totals related to the same destination / airline are greater than 85%, the airport has counterbalanced with other flights.






In this case, the completion rates of the pair PC-BGY is less than 85% (71%), and none of the totals related to the same airlines/destinations are greater than 85%, the airport has not counterbalanced with other flights.








BGY 0 8 7 15 BGY 6 5 11 BGY na 75% 71% 73% KO


OK OK KO






Even though the completion rate of the pair FR-BGY is less than 85% (63%), the total related to the same airline is greater than 85%, the airport has counterbalanced with other flights.








BGY 0 8 7 15 BGY 5 6 11 BGY na 63% 86% 73% KO


OK OK OK




Case 4. This airport revise the theoretical Sample Plan to systematically group to a minimum of 4 questionnaires, their targeted sample plan will be different than the original one.


In this case, only 4 questionnaires were collected for the airline EasyJet (U2), the total completion rates is less than 85% (67%)

Original Sample Plan Targeted Sample Plan Actual Completed Questionnaires Completion Rates

Airlines Airlines Airlines Airlines

Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total

AAR 0 14 0 14 AAR 0 14 0 14 AAR 0 12 0 12 AAR na 86% na 86% OK

ADB 2 0 1 3 ADB 0 0 0 0 ADB 0 0 0 0 ADB na na na na OK

AGP 3 4 0 7 AGP 6 6 0 12 AGP 4 6 0 10 AGP na 150% na 143% OK

AMS 1 2 0 3 AMS 0 0 0 0 AMS 0 0 0 0 AMS na na na na OK

BGY 0 8 7 15 BGY 0 8 8 16 BGY 0 9 8 17 BGY na 113% 114% 113% OK

Total 6 28 8 42 Total 6 28 8 42 Total 4 27 8 39 Total 67% 96% 100% 93% OK

KO OK OK




Case 5. This airport revise the theoretical Sample Plan to systematically group to a minimum of 4 questionnaires, their targeted sample plan will be different than the original one.


All completion rates are greater than 85%.

Original Sample Plan Targeted Sample Plan Actual Completed Questionnaires Completion Rates

Airlines Airlines Airlines Airlines

Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total Dest. U2 FR PC Total

AAR 0 14 0 14 AAR 0 14 0 14 AAR 0 16 0 16 AAR na 114% na 114% OK

ADB 2 0 1 3 ADB 0 0 0 0 ADB 0 0 0 0 ADB na na na na OK

AGP 3 4 0 7 AGP 6 6 0 12 AGP 7 5 0 12 AGP na 125% na 171% OK

AMS 1 2 0 3 AMS 0 0 0 0 AMS 0 0 0 0 AMS na na na na OK

BGY 0 8 7 15 BGY 0 8 8 16 BGY 0 8 7 15 BGY na 100% 100% 100% OK

Total 6 28 8 42 Total 6 28 8 42 Total 7 29 7 43 Total 117% 104% 88% 102% OK

OK OK OK


Fieldwork GuidelinesFieldwork - Rules & Guidelines

© 2015 ACI 13

• Fieldwork agents shall arrive at the boarding area of a selected flight at least:

o 30 minutes before the announced boarding time for narrow body flights (<230 seats)o 45 minutes before the announced boarding time for wide body flights

• Fieldwork agents shall space the distribution of questionnaires over all the available waiting time before boarding, to include in the sample those passengers that usually arrive at the gate at a time closer to the boarding call (e.g. business passengers).

• Fieldwork agents shall distribute the questionnaires to a broad range of diverse passengers at the departing area, on a random basis. Furthermore, they shall avoid giving questionnaires to members of the same group (e.g. families, friends, etc…).

• Fieldwork agents shall introduce the questionnaire to the passengers with a neutral, clear statement, for example:

o “Would you mind taking some time to fill out this brief questionnaire that [this airport] is conducting? Please hand it back to me before departing. Thank you.”

• Fieldwork agents shall offer to the passenger the different language versions available.

• Fieldwork agents shall provide pens to the passengers to fill the questionnaires. These pens shall be basic ones, in order not to introduce bias.

• Fieldwork agents shall stay in the departure area while the passengers are filling the questionnaires, in order to be available for passengers’ questions and/or clarifications (considering that in some cases the same waiting area can serve more than one gate or flight).

Fieldwork Guide and Schedules – ASQ Main Programme 2015 14© 2015 ACI

1. Identify the seating area allocated to the gate studied;

2. Delimit that area with a rectangle;

3. Follow the rules of thumb indicated in the pages that follow for gate samples between 4and 10 questionnaires.

Photo Credit: LAFONTAN, Mikaël et SEIGNETTE, Olivier pour Aéroports de Paris

Fieldwork Best PracticesRandom Selection of Passengers at the Gate

Recommended Practice:


Boarding gate seating area example:

Passenger seating down

Passenger standing up

Airline / ground handling

staff

Boarding gate seating area

Rows of seats


Passenger Random

Selection Zone

EBT - 20’

Time: 20 minutes before the Estimated Boarding Time (EBT)


4 questionnaires per gate visit – aim to distribute questionnaires to one passengerclose to the center of the 5 circles indicated below:


EBT - 33’

EBT - 21’

EBT - 39’

EBT - 45’

EBT - 27’

Fieldwork Guide and Schedules – ASQ Main Programme 2015Fieldwork Guide and Schedules - v2.2015-03-09 17© 2015 ACI



EBT - 30’

EBT - 20’

EBT - 35’

EBT - 45’

EBT - 25’ EBT - 40’




EBT - 28’

EBT - 20’

EBT - 36’ EBT - 45’

EBT - 24’ EBT - 32’ EBT - 41’




EBT - 30’

EBT - 20’

EBT - 37’

EBT - 45’EBT - 24’ EBT - 34’

EBT - 41’

EBT - 28’




EBT - 29’

EBT - 20’

EBT - 32’

EBT - 45’

EBT - 23’

EBT - 35’

EBT - 41’

EBT - 26’

EBT - 38’




EBT - 26’

EBT - 20’EBT - 32’

EBT - 45’

EBT - 23’

EBT - 34’

EBT - 39’

EBT - 29’ EBT - 36’

EBT - 42’



22© 2015 ACI

10 questionnaires per gate visit – aim to distribute questionnaires to onepassenger close to the center of the 11 circles indicated below:

EBT - 26’

EBT - 20’EBT - 32’

EBT - 45’

EBT - 23’

EBT - 34’

EBT - 40’

EBT - 28’

EBT - 37’ EBT - 42’EBT - 30’


Fieldwork GuidelinesQuestionnaire Management

© 2015 ACI 23

• Fieldwork agents shall check the questionnaires after collecting them from the passengers, focusing on the following fields, and completing the information (cf. Instructions for Fieldwork Staff p24)

• Fieldwork agents shall complete the interviewer section at the end of page 4 of the questionnaire, using block capital letters.

• Fieldwork agents shall populate the Sample Plan Management Tool on a regular basis, at least once per month.

• Completed questionnaires shall be returned every month to ACI or its Authorized Subcontractor (cf. p32).

• Participating Airports shall ensure that ACI or its Authorized Subcontractor receives all questionnaires before the quarterly deadlines published by ACI every year. Only those questionnaires that are received before the quarterly deadlines will be included in the reports and data sets.

• Unused questionnaires received for a specific quarter shall not be used for other different quarters.

• Unused and voided questionnaires shall be kept by the Airport for a period of one year after the end of each quarter, with the exception shown in the paragraph below. After this period these questionnaires shall be destroyed.

• Participating Airports with global ranking from 1 to 25 in the previous quarter “Year to Date” of “Overall Satisfaction” shall send all unused and voided questionnaires to ACI or its Authorized Subcontractor.

• Other Participating Airports may be requested to send unused and voided questionnaires to ACI or its Authorized Subcontractor for quality control purposes.


Instructions for Fieldwork StaffHow to check the questionnaire completion

24© 2015 ACI

• Fieldwork Staff will check the completion of the following fields:

Airline

Flight number

Departure Date and Time

Destination Airport

If the passenger has written an airline name, letter code or flight number different from the operating airlinename and flight number, the fieldwork agent has to correct these fields, striking through the incorrect lettersand numbers, and writing the correct ones inside or below the allocated field boxes;

Gender (question 17) and Age (question 18):

If the passenger has not written these fields, the fieldwork agent can kindly ask the passenger if he/she wouldlike to provide this information.

• Fieldwork agents shall complete the interviewer section at the end of page 4 of the questionnaire, usingblock capital letters.

• Please check examples in the following pages.


Instructions for Fieldwork StaffHow to check the questionnaire completion (page 1 of the questionnaire)

25© 2015 ACI

Flight information has to be consistent

Gate number has to be same as on

the page 4.

Correct Day (DD) and Month (MM)

if needed

Time has to be in 24 h format

Please use a 3-Letter IATA code of the destination airport. Has to be flight destination,

not passenger’s final destination.

If there is not enough space inside the text box, please make the correction below the box.


Instructions for Fieldwork StaffHow to fill the Interviewer section (page 4 of the questionnaire)

26© 2015 ACI

Airport Number Code - preprinted

Questionnaire number - preprinted

Year Quarter Language Serial #

Traffic: • International• Domestic • Transborder (Canada only)

Use same coding as the one provided to ACI

Unique identifier for interviewer, with

NUMBERS (NO letters)

Correct Gate Number (has to be the same as

on the page 1)


Fluctuations in scores:

Participating Airports shall provide, when requested by ACI, clear evidence that would explain fluctuations in average scores higher than the ones that could be explained by the Confidence Interval (CI) analysis, when compared to scores from the previous quarter and from the same quarter of the previous year (when the data is available).

• If a Participating Airport fails to fulfill this requirement without any valid reason, this airport will not be included in the official rankings for that quarter, nor in the “year-to-date” rankings for that year. In addition, this Airport will not be eligible for an annual Award.

• When the evidence provided by a Participating Airport is not clear or would not explain the occurred deviations, ACI may conduct an on-site independent fieldwork audit at that Participating Airport (cf. Audit Document).

Fieldwork GuidelinesQuestionnaires – Quality Control

Case 1. Sample Size = 350 questionnaires

4.50

Mean Scores Overall Satisfaction: Q2/14: 4.50 Q1/14: 3.84 Q2/13: 4.35

3.84 4.351.00 5.00

Fluctuations between Q2/14 and Q1/14 (or Q2/13) cannot be statistically “justified”.

Confidence Level=95%


Fieldwork GuidelinesQuestionnaires – Quality Control


4.503.84 4.381.00 5.00


4.503.84 4.381.00 5.00

Fluctuations between Q2/14 and Q1/14 cannot be statistically “justified” but the fluctuations between Q2/14 and Q2/13 can be justified (seasonality effect).

Confidence Level=95%

Fluctuations between Q2/14 and Q1/14 (or Q2/13) cannot be statistically “justified”.

Mean Scores Overall Satisfaction: Q2/14: 4.50 Q1/14: 3.84 Q2/13: 4.38


Timeline for the ASQ Services in 2015Distribution of Sample Plans and Blank Questionnaires

29© 2015 ACI

Distribution of the quarterly Blank Questionnaires by ACI:

• Q1/2015 – received by the airports before 26 December 2014

• Q2/2015 – received by the airports before 20 March 2015

• Q3/2015 – received by the airports before 22 June 2015

• Q4/2015 – received by the airports before 21 September 2015

Distribution of the quarterly Sample Plans by ACI:

• Q1/2015 – by 05 December 2014

• Q2/2015 – by 11 March 2015

• Q3/2015 – by 05 June 2015

• Q4/2015 – by 04 September 2015

Request of modifications to the Sample Plan by the airports:

• Before the beginning of the fieldwork for each quarter

• Before you start grouping and re-allocation exercise

• If during the quarter there is an unexpected flight cancellation which will effect the number ofquestionnaires greater than 4, please let us know


Timeline for the ASQ Services in 2015Deadlines for Return of Completed Questionnaires to ACI

30© 2015 ACI

• To ensure timely delivery of results, it is crucial that airports send CompletedQuestionnaire once a month.

• The mandatory deadlines for Returning the Completed Questionnaires by theairports are:

o Q1/2015 – received by TNS Canada before 13 March 2015

o Q2/2015 – received by TNS Canada before 12 June 2015

o Q3/2015 – received by TNS Canada before 11 September 2015

o Q4/2015 – received by TNS Canada before 11 December 2015

*If Completed Questionnaires do not arrive by these dates, ACI and TNS Canada will not be able toinclude these questionnaires in the quarterly results.


Timeline for the ASQ Services in 2015Return Address for Completed Questionnaires

31© 2015 ACI

VERY IMPORTANT:Completed Questionnaires should be sent to TNS CANADA at the following address:

TNS CANADA LTD2 Bloor Street EastSuite 900Toronto, ONM4W 3H8CANADAAttn: Janice Bonner(t: 1-416-924-5751; [email protected])*

(*) Contact information may be required by the courier company


Timeline for the ASQ Services in 2015Submission of Results and Reports to the Airports

© 2015 ACI 32

Distribution of the quarterly results and standard deliverables by ACI :

• Q1/2015 – received by the airports before 17 April 2015

• Q2/2015 – received by the airports before 17 July 2015

• Q3/2015 – received by the airports before 16 October 2015

• Q4/2015 – received by the airports before 18 January 2016

Distribution of the additional and optional deliverables by ACI : (*)

• Q1/2015 – received by the airports before 24 April 2015

• Q2/2015 – received by the airports before 24 July 2015

• Q3/2015 – received by the airports before 23 October 2015

• Q4/2015 – received by the airports before 25 January 2016

(*) Customized reports and special services will have specific deadlines agreed with theparticipating airports that subscribe to these services.

© 2015 ACIACI

© 2015 ACI 33

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FIELDWORK GUIDE AND SCHEDULES