CASA's 2025 stakeholder satisfaction survey has revealed that satisfaction levels with the regulator have not changed significantly since the last survey.
The survey report was released yesterday, which showed stakeholders gave CASA an overall score of 6.1 out of 10, exactly the same rating achieved in the 2023 survey.
This figure reflects that 51% of the stakeholders who responded said they were satisfied with CASA's performance.
However, whilst the report showed that the proportion of stakeholders who were "very satisfied" has grown significantly to 24% from 16% in 2023, dissatisfaction has also increased, with 17% reported being dissatisfied, up from 13% in 2023.
According to CASA, the dissatisfaction levels were targeted mainly at service.
"Dissatisfaction continues to centre on service delivery, with stakeholders in regular contact with CASA more likely to rate us negatively," the regulator said.
"This likely reflects that the matters stakeholders have contacted us about are still being addressed and not yet resolved."
Despite no increase in satisfaction levels, the report still has some positives for CASA.
"Qualitative interviews suggest CASA has made positive progress," report authors WhereTo note in the summary.
"CASA are increasingly seen to be meeting expectations in addressing industry needs and providing online services, as well as working on fostering and supporting positive industry relationships."
Interestingly, WhereTo notes that stakeholders seem to be happy with CASA's managers, a cohort that has came under fire quite regularly before major changes were made.
"Senior staff are seen to have a greater personal commitment to making changes and focus on working collaboratively and
maintaining personal relationships with stakeholders," WhereTo states.
Stakeholders reported increased efficiency from CASA, supported by the development of plain English guides and online resources, and that the approvals process and processing times has improved across the last 12-18 months.
Key numbers coming out of the survey include:
- 47% of stakeholders are satisfied with the way CASA maintains an open and transparent relationship
- 36% of stakeholders are satisfied with the way CASA works collaboratively with industry
- 41% of stakeholders are satisfied with the way CASA develops aviation safety regulations
- 37% are satisfied with the consistency of CASA’s decision making.
WhereTo's analysis showed that people who have had recent contact with CASA were more likely to report being dissatisfied.
"More than half (54%) of stakeholders have been in contact with CASA within the last three months," the report notes. "These stakeholders were more likely to be dissatisfied with CASA overall (28%), the way CASA develops aviation safety regulations (23%), their service delivery (35%), and consistency in decision making (38%).
"This is most likely due to a recency effect and the increased likelihood that the issues for which they have been in contact remain unresolved, and are in the process of being attended to.
"However, this is potentially related to the issues noted above around perceptions of slow service delivery, and potentially suggests a need to keep stakeholders better informed of the progress of their enquiry through the system."
WhereTo's analysis also showed that some old issues yet to be addressed are still worrying the aviation community, such as:
- a lack of consistency between operational teams, resulting in varying levels of service quality
- levels of bureaucracy causing frustration
- simplification of application processes to allow for better communication of timelines and status of applications
- a lack of transparency on CASA’s behalf, with more transparent processes and communications expected to drive improvements in stakeholder experience and perceptions.
CASA invited 14 stakeholders from the aviation industry for in-depth interviews contributing to the survey, and a further 6600 were randomly selected stakeholders to complete a 5-minute survey. Of those, 436 responded.
Participation was down for this year's survey, with the 436 significantly lower than the 683 returned in 2023 and 755 in 2020.
The full 2025 CASA stakeholder satisfaction survey report is on the CASA website.