ACI World has named the top airport awards in its the worldwide ACI Airport Service Quality (ASQ) passenger survey as: Seoul Incheon International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport,

and Hyderabad Rajiv Ghandi International Airport.

The airports' association says these awards reflect the Asia Pacific region's 'strong customer service culture, airport management commitment to service delivery and the high quality of modern passenger facilities at each of these airports.'

ACI Director General Angela Gittens said: ‘2009 was a tough year for airports worldwide. Traffic numbers fell while competition rose. For airports, it was a year of balancing tight budgets with high customer expectations for service excellence. The results of the year-long ASQ passenger survey help identify the leaders in meeting that challenge and demonstrate that airports have continued to invest and focus on customer service despite falling traffic numbers.

‘Thus it is my pleasure to announce the top awards in the worldwide category go to Seoul Incheon International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, and Hyderabad Rajiv Ghandi International Airport.’

Gittens congratulated the winners and Incheon in particular 'having garnered the top spot for five years running'. Gittens said that all of these airports have learned to focus on key performance factors that their passengers most appreciate and she now looks forward to the official awards ceremony at the ACI Asia Pacific Region's Annual Conference in Sanya, Hainan, China on May 13 – hosted by HNA Airport Group.

EQUALLY IMPORTANT AWARDS
In addition to the worldwide category, the equally significant top performers in each of the six regional categories and five traffic-size categories were as follows:

? By region: George, South Africa (Africa); Seoul Incheon, South Korea (Asia-Pacific); Keflavik, Iceland (Europe); Cancun, Mexico (Latin America-Caribbean); Tel Aviv, Israel (Middle East) and Austin, USA (North America).

? By the traffic size categories: Halifax, Canada (under 5m), Hyderabad, India (5-15m), Baltimore/Washington, USA (15-25m), Seoul Incheon, South Korea (25-40m) and Hong Kong, China (over 40m).

ASQ Programme Director Craig Bradbrook said: ‘In addition to the top performing airports award, for 2009 we expanded the 'Best Improvement Award' to cover each of the six regions. The awards recognize those airports having made the most progress in improving service quality. The 2009 passenger ratings show that despite the economic crisis, overall satisfaction at airports increased by almost 3% worldwide compared to 2008. It is gratifying to see that 82% of the airports were rated with stable or improved performance.

‘Winners of the Best Improvement Award are Cairo (Africa); New Delhi (Asia-Pacific); Cancun (Latin America-Caribbean); Ponta Delgada (Europe); Abu Dhabi (Middle East); and Cleveland (North America). From these excellent efforts and the sharing of information on service improvement initiatives, the ASQ programme becomes a source of best practice guidance for fellow participants.’

The ten factors identified as essential for high-customer service ratings were, (by order of importance): airport ambience ; terminal cleanliness; waiting area comfort; availability of washrooms; cleanliness of washrooms; courtesy and helpfulness of airport staff; business lounges; ease of making connections; the passport/ID inspection experience; good shopping facilities.