Airports Council International (ACI) World has announced over 200 recipients of ‘The Voice of the Customer’ award, a recognition that celebrates airports that have prioritized listening and adapting to customers during the pandemic.
To qualify, an airport member must have collected three or more quarters of data through the customer experience measurement and benchmarking program Airport Service Quality (ASQ). The recognition is separate from the ASQ Awards, whose winners will be announced in March. For a second year running, the delivery of the recognition was sponsored by Amadeus.
The winners in Africa included Aéroport International de Tunis Carthage, Tunisia; Agostinho Neto Airport, Congo; Blaise Diagne International Airport, Senegal; and
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya. In the Asia-Pacific category, winners included Auckland International Airport, New Zealand; Ngurah Rai, Indonesia; and Beijing Capital International Airport, China.
In Europe, the winners included A Coruña Airport, Spain; Adnan Menderes Airport, Turkey; and Aéroport de Carcassonne, France. The Latin American-Caribbean winners included Aeropuerto Internacional José Joaquin de Olmedo, Ecuador; Arturo Merino Benitez Airport, Chile; and Bermuda LF Wade International Airport, Bermuda.
In the Middle East, Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia and Muscat International Airport in Oman were all counted among the winners. And finally, in North America, the winners included Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Texas; Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Maryland; and Calgary International Airport in Canada.
Luis Felipe de Oliveira, director general of ACI World, said, “The pandemic has caused substantial changes in human behavior and provoked a whole new set of expectations affecting how products and services should be experienced – from a prioritization of health to increased digitalization such as contactless touchpoints. The Voice of the Customer highlights the ongoing commitment of airports to understanding the evolving expectations of the end-user, the traveling public, in these challenging times.
“ACI research has revealed that passenger satisfaction directly impacts an airport’s non-aeronautical revenue, an area that will play an increasingly important role in the recovery of the airport business. The ASQ program, the world’s leading airport customer experience measurement and benchmarking program, plays a central role in helping airports maintain and strengthen their competitive advantage and contribute to their sustained long-term recovery.”
Elena Avila, executive vice president of airport IT and airline operations at Amadeus, said, “Airports are having to respond to completely new passenger priorities in today’s complex environment such as social distancing, hygiene and health, in addition to the traditional passenger requirements for a smooth travel experience. Amadeus fully supports ACI’s Voice of the Customer initiative, which prioritizes the needs of the most important airport stakeholder – the passenger.
“Likewise, at Amadeus we’re actively listening to our airport customers and helping them address many of their challenges by applying new technologies such as cloud, biometrics and touchless at every step in the passenger’s airport experience, as well as supporting closer airline and airport collaboration at the terminal.”