London Heathrow Airport took the 2017 Skytrax Award for the ‘World’s Best Airport Shopping’ for the fourth year in a row at the Passenger Terminal EXPO in Amsterdam last night.

 

The best shopping award was based on landside and airside shopping facilities voted for by international air travellers in the World Airport Survey, with Incheon Airport coming in second and Hong Kong taking third.

 

Heathrow’s shopping award placed it ahead of Incheon, Hong Kong, Changi, Doha Hamad, Dubai, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris CDG, Frankfurt and Zurich.

 

ACI ASQ AWARD ALSO GOES TO HEATHROW…

This award also follows the entirely separate Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Award to Heathrow for the Best Airport by Size and Region in Europe in the 40m-pax plus category by Airports Council International earlier this month.

 

According to ACI, some 82% of passengers rated their Heathrow experience as either ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ in 2016, which the airports body noted as ‘a record score’.

 

Both of these awards are highly sought after by airports, since they carry added credibility as it is the passengers and not the industry that ultimately choose the winners.

 

With regard to the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Award, Heathrow also achieved its best ever annual ASQ passenger satisfaction score, while welcoming a record 76m passengers through the UK’s hub.

 

Commenting on this accolade, a proud Normand Boivin, Heathrow’s COO said: “We are incredibly proud to receive this award voted by our most important critics – our passengers.

 

2016 WAS ‘EXCITING YEAR…”

“Our team are continually striving to deliver the world’s best airport service. 2016 was an exciting year for us at Heathrow with the introduction of additional new e-gates making arrivals even smoother across all terminals, the installation of new generation instrument landing systems to improve punctuality in poor weather, a wave of new luxury lounges across all terminals and the opening of Terminal 5’s first ever Personal Shopping suite.

“In 2017 we look forward to a wave of new luxury lounges for passengers, the beginning of construction on Terminal 2’s very own hotel and the reopening of Gordon Ramsay’s much-loved Plane Food in Terminal 5.”

 

Heathrow Airport management added that 82% of passengers rating their journey as either ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ represents approximately 62m Heathrow passengers – a rise of one million ‘happier’ passengers than in 2015.

 

The airport company says that back in 2006, only 41% of passengers rated their experience as either ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ but in the decade that has passed, Heathrow has invested more than £11bn ($11.6bn) to enhance the airport experience.