From correspondents in Paris, France, 10:01 PM IST

European aerospace major Thales has scored a record performance in Airbus rankings, retaining its place among the top 10 customer support providers for the third consecutive year and scoring a fourth place for its avionics activities, the company said Tuesday.

The benchmark rankings measure airline satisfaction with first-tier suppliers and their customer support performance.

Airbus has also awarded Thales a third place ranking for its cabin support activities, while commending it with an eighth place for supplier furnished equipment and in-flight entertainment (IFE) support, a company statement said.

'The effort and dedication of Thales teams gave the company top grades in the ranking, which rely on statistics provided by airlines and Airbus in a detailed survey,' the statement said.

'The performance of each supplier was given a score - according to products, services and operating costs - and suppliers were then ranked according to their overall scores,' the statement added.

Daniel Malka, head of civil aerospace services worldwide for Thales explained how the company uses results and valuable feedback received from Airbus and airlines all around the world.

'The Airbus ranking is very important for Thales, and dedicated action plans are managed on a yearly basis to improve Thales performance vis-a-vis operators', he said.

'In recent years Thales has used the feedback from the airline community to focus on technical and operational performance with key initiatives such as account management and TTGF (time to get a fix) processes.

'Our current priority is to keep improving operational performance in worldwide repair and distribution and to make sure Thales products are maintainable in the long term,' Malka added.

Thales is a global technology leader for the aerospace, space, defence, security and transportation markets. In 2008, the company generated revenues of 12.7 billion euros with 68,000 employees in 50 countries.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)