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Airports Council International (ACI) World has today announced an evolution of its world-leading Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards programme which reflect the increasingly dynamic airports industry.ASQ is the world’s leading airport passenger service and benchmarking programme measuring passengers’ satisfaction while they are travelling through an airport. Some 400 airports across 90 countries participate in the programme which provides the research tools and management information to help airports better understand passengers’ views and what they want from an airport’s products and services.

The ASQ Awards celebrate, recognize and reward the best airports in the world for customer experience and represent the highest possible accolade for airport operators and the changes – including a new logo and visual identity – announced today will ensure that they continue to reflect the commitment of airports worldwide to continuously improve passenger experience.

“ACI’s ASQ programme and the annual awards are dedicated to showing the commitment of airports worldwide to continuously improving the passenger experience,” ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said. “Our industry is growing and evolving, and airports are now sophisticated businesses that increasingly prioritize delivering a high quality of customer experience as a means of boosting their competitiveness.

“To ensure that the ASQ programme keeps pace with the changes we see in the airports industry, we have made improvements to the existing ASQ Awards and have launched new awards.”

The ASQ Departures Survey has three major changes being put into effect, a new scoring system, new category definitions of the existing awards and new awards. In 2019, the winning airports will be based on percentages, whereby airports in the top 20th percentile will be recognized.

This is being done so that high-scoring airports will be recognized; with so many airports achieving very high scores from their customers, the previously-used system is no longer fit for purpose. As well, some airports that excel in important segments of customer experience but may not be able to deliver in all areas; especially airports that have outdated or insufficient infrastructure. We have now added awards for airports whose customers tell ACI that they are providing excellent service in a major category.

The award categories in 2019 are:

    • Top 20% of Africa per size and region
    • Top 20% Asia-Pacific per size and region
    • Top 20% Europe per size and region
    • Top 20% Latin America and Caribbean per size and region
    • Top 20% Middle East per size and region
    • Top 20% North America per size and region

There is no change to the size categories.

ACI World is also introducing three new awards to the Departures Survey. These awards will represent the top 5% across the world:

    • Top 5% of airports rated highest in ambience
    • Top 5% of airports rated highest in customer care based on the quality of the customer service received by those surveyed, and
    • Top 5% of airports rated highest in customer facilities – this category measures more than customer service and is based on the range of shops, restaurants and other facilities offered to passengers as they travel through the airport.

The fourth and final change is the addition of a new ASQ Arrivals Award, based on the ASQ Arrivals Survey programme. For this award, there will only be one airport winner which will be awarded based on the overall satisfaction score.