Awards for service at airports

Awards for service at airports

OR TAMBO and King Shaka international airports were inducted on to the Airports Council International's (ACI) roll of excellence in airport service quality earlier this month at a gala dinner in Marrakech, Morocco, at which Angela Gittens, director-general of ACI, inducted 14 airports.

The dinner was part of ACI's World/Africa Annual General Assembly, Conference and Exhibition. Each year, ACI recognises those airports which, in the opinion of passengers, have provided the best level of service. OR Tambo and King Shaka international airports have ranked consistently in the top five of African airports.

ACI launched the Airport Service Quality global benchmarking programme for service quality in 2006. More than 220 airports around the world participate in the survey, which benchmarks passenger satisfaction against the services provided by the airport and its stakeholders on the day of travel.

It is the world's largest airport passenger satisfaction programme and, during the past five years of the survey, ACI has identified 14 airports worldwide that have featured consistently in the top five in their regional or size categories.

After receiving the awards, Bongani Maseko, acting MD of Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), said: & Acsa was one of the first operators of a network of airports to register on this programme with the intention of establishing its passengers' needs and expectations through an independent source.

& Using these results Acsa has worked with stakeholders since 2006 to improve passenger satisfaction levels. The findings inform Acsa's economic regulating committee on the experience and satisfaction of passengers travelling through our airports.

& Without the support of our entire airport stakeholder base, especially airport employees, it would not have been possible to win the awards. I wish to thank every employee for making sure that our passengers continue to experience high levels of service.&