ACI Europe held its 12th ‘Best Airport Awards’ event at last night’s Gala Dinner at the 26th ACI EUROPE General Assembly, Congress & Exhibition, hosted by Athens International Airport.

 

The airports association’s awards are based on the four categories of traffic and were created to give recognition to achievements in core airport activities, including customer service, facilities, retail, security, community relations and environmental awareness and operations.

 

 

As such, Keflavik Airport won in the ‘under 5m passenger’ category, with the judges commending it in most evaluation areas including improvements in operations and the enhancement of the passenger experience – plus its involvement with the local community, stakeholders and its environmental policy. London City Airport was highly commended in this category.

 

 

The winner of the ‘5-10m passenger’ category was Glasgow Airport, winning praise for its strong focus on performance, its facilities upgrade and greatly improved passenger experience. Naples Airport was highly commended in this category.

 

Other winners in the various categories were as follows:

 

10-25M PASSENGER CATEGORY: Brussels Airport won this award on the basis of its key investment in the Connector including the world’s first remote screening of cabin baggage on a large scale, which has improved the passenger experience (e.g. reduced walking distances, more clarity on the way to take, reduced waiting times). Edinburgh Airport was highly commended in this category.

 

 

OVER 25M PASSENGER CATEGORY: London Heathrow Airport won the top award in the 25m-passenger category for its operations enhancements, its partnership with ATC and airlines and its engagement with the community, environment and charitable causes. Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport was commended.

 

 

ECO-INNOVATION AWARD: Avinor’s Oslo Airport won this award, with the judging panel particularly impressed with its project to supply bio jet fuel to all customer airlines from January 2016 – the world’s first airport to offer this service through the normal supply mechanism.

 

 

ACCESSIBLE AIRPORT AWARD: To mark the 10th anniversary of the adoption of Regulation (EC) 1107/2006 concerning the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air, ACI EUROPE partnered with the European Disability Forum (EDF) to creates this award which was presented to Dublin Airport by Yannis Yallouros, the European Disability Forum’s Executive Committee Member. Larnaca Airport was highly commended in this category of award.

 

 

WBP RECOGNITION AWARD: This World Business Partner award went to Johan Schölvinck, Vice-President Commercial InterVISTAS, Consultant for NACO and Vice-Chair of the ACI EUROPE Commercial Forum, in recognition of his outstanding airport industry expertise and strong commitment to the ACI EUROPE Commercial Forum’s Business Transformation Task Force.

 

 

SPECIAL LEADER OF THE YEAR AWARD: This award was created especially for this year and not surprisingly went to Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, ‘for his extraordinary leadership and courage together with his remarkable decisiveness and wisdom in managing the aftermath of the terrorist attack at Brussels Airport on 22 March’. The award was presented by Augustin de Romanet, President of ACI EUROPE and President & CEO Aéroports S.A.- Groupe ADP.

 

 

The awards were presented to the winning airports by Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI Europe; Angela Gittens, Director General ACI World; Salvatore Sciacchitano, Executive Secretary, ECAC; Filip Cornelis, Acting Director, Aviation and International Transport Affairs, European Commission; Philippe Merlo, Director ATM EUROCONTROL; and Catherine Mayer, Vice-President SITA.

 

This years’ judging panel is aid to have been drawn from a well-respected group of independent experts, including EUROCONTROL, European Commission, European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), European Travel Commission (ETC) and FlightGlobal.

 

The 27th ACI EUROPE General Assembly, Congress & Exhibition will be hosted by Groupe ADP and will take place in Paris on 14-16 June 2017.