INTERNATIONAL. Airports Council International (ACI) has named the winners of the 2017 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, with Mumbai and Delhi jointly capturing the top prize in the largest category, for airports handling over 40 million passengers a year.
Other big winners were Chongqing International, in the 25-40 million passenger category, and Bali Denpasar, Haikou Meilan and Sanya Phoenix airports (both in Hainan, China) in the 15-25 million category. Among airports serving 5-15 million passengers a year, Hyderabad captured top spot, while Lucknow in India ranked first in the 2-5 million passenger rankings.
This year an unprecedented 16 airports were first-time winners, noted ACI World. It said: “This phenomenon reflects the increasingly competitive airport industry operating environment, where continuous service improvement is a key ingredient in business performance.”
First-time winners this year are: Rome Fiumicino, Newcastle, Athens, Zagreb, Bandung, Indore, Ahmedabad, Casablanca, George, Toronto Pearson, San Jose, Cleveland, Los Cabos, Belo Horizonte and Medina.
Among the largest airports by region, the big winners included Mumbai, Toronto Pearson and Rome Fiumicino.
Uniquely, ASQ surveys passengers at the airport on their day of travel. Each year the programme delivers some 600,000 individual surveys in 42 languages in 84 countries. It measures passengers’ views of 34 key performance indicators, including airport access, check-in, security screening, restrooms, stores and restaurants. With questions the same at each location, the survey creates a database that allows airports to compare themselves to others around the world. The ASQ Programme also facilitates the sharing of best practice among airport companies. ASQ served 343 airports in 2017.
ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said: “Objective measurement and benchmarking are critical in driving performance in any business especially in such a competitive and dynamic one as an airport. These winning airports have dedicated themselves to delivering a stellar customer experience. ACI World proudly recognises the accomplishments of all airports in the global ASQ network. I look forward to celebrating with them in September.”
The full list of winners is as follows:
The ASQ Awards Ceremony will be held during the inaugural Customer Excellence Global Summit, to be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from 10–13 September 2018, hosted by Halifax International Airport Authority.
ACI and ACI Asia Pacific are The Moodie Davitt Report’s partners in The Trinity Forum, which takes place this year on 31 October and 1 November in Shanghai.
